


Assumptions and Misunderstandings

by VWebb



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Eavesdropping, I don't like Steve Rogers - its pretty obvious, M/M, Misunderstandings, Not Steve Friendly, Not particularly Friendly to Natasha Romanov, Oblivious Tony Stark, Or Clint Barton, POV Steve Rogers, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Stealth Crossover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-18
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-03-07 05:51:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 33
Words: 29,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18867031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VWebb/pseuds/VWebb
Summary: Listening in to other people's conversations doesn't always give you all the information.  This is something Steve needs to learn.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> It was interesting doing the POV of a character I don't like. But there were points where I really got into it.
> 
> Not Steve Rogers Friendly - if you don't like that, then this is not the fic for you.

_“Are you going to be seeing Steve soon?”_

Steve looked up at the voice coming out of the air.

“Yeah.”

Steve looked over as he heard Stark’s voice coming from the open elevator. It was a surprise to see him. 

_“Well, Good Luck!”_ Steve identified the voice coming from the air as Miss Potts. Obviously, Steve was hearing a telephone call taking place.

“Hush, you.”

_“Goodbye, Tony.”_

“Bye, Pep. Talk to you later.” Stark finished his conversation as he walked past the chair Steve was sitting in looking over some reports Maria Hill had sent him about possible sightings of Bucky and Hydra. “Hey, Cap,” was absently tossed over his shoulder as Stark made his way to the kitchen and pulled out a bag of coffee and the bundle of oranges from the refrigerator.

Steve waited for Stark to tell him what he needed to see him for, but the aggravating little Billionaire just turned around and walked back into the elevator. Steve was about to call out to Stark to ask what he needed to talk to him about, but the elevator doors closed before he could. Huffing in annoyance, Steve went back to his reports. Stark would come back if he needed to.


	2. Chapter 2

“I don’t know Pepper; it’s Steve.

“You can just ask him Tony.”

“But, it’s _Steve_.”

“Honestly, Tony, just ask him!”

Steve watched as the two came around the corner leading to Stark’s office in the SI levels. He knew they hadn’t come from Potts' office as that was on the other side of Stark’s than the direction they had come from. He had been waiting in the seating area in front of Mrs. Arbogast’s desk but having to watch her efficient and unceasing work while her boss was off messing around had been too irritating. Mrs. Arbogast had told him he wasn’t allowed to just wait in Stark’s office, so he had taken to walking up and down the hallways. Stark’s employees were all very hard at work, it’s too bad that Stark couldn’t be more like them.

The two people in front of Steve looked over in surprise as his movement in front of Stark’s outer office door caught their attention. Steve watched as the slightly teasing expression on Pepper Potts face faded to the blankly efficient look of someone awaiting orders from their boss. That too, was unsettling to Steve, he didn’t understand how Miss Potts could just change her expressions or emotions like that. It was understandable in someone like Natasha, but for Miss Potts to have to do that all the time, it just went to show that working for Stark must be terrible.

“Hey, Cap,” Stark greeted as the two continued to walk towards the door Steve was waiting outside of. “Something you need?”

“You weren’t at the meeting on Monday.”

“Yeah, no. I was just getting back from Hawaii.”

“You need to come to the meetings, Stark. Clint has been trying to get ahold of you to talk about some new arrow ideas and Sam’s wings still aren’t fixed, yet. What were you doing going on vacation in Hawaii when you have work to do?”

“Cap, I’ve told you, I can’t work on the EXO wings. They’re a proprietary technology that belongs to the U.S. Air Force. I technically can’t even look at them as they don’t belong to Wilson and could be considered stolen property.” No response to Steve’s justified rebuke for Stark’s laziness was made. Stark came to a stop in front of him and Steve waited for Miss Potts to continue on to her office only for her to continue standing there next to Stark.

“We didn’t steal them!” Steve exclaimed frustrated. Stark kept giving him the same worthless excuse. Those wings should have been fixed weeks ago, Steve needed Sam’s help in his search for Bucky and Sam deserved it for his faith in and help to Steve in D.C. “Sam needs his wings fixed, Stark! It’s been almost four months!”

“Mr. Rogers,” Miss Potts always called him that. It was aggravating that she never gave him the courtesy of using his proper military rank. “Regardless of whether or not you stole the EXO wings, Dr. Stark is not allowed to work on them without written authorization from the Air Force. That is simply the way these things work. You do not control the Air Force and so cannot guarantee Dr. Stark’s permission, or freedom from prosecution, if he does as you ask.” In many ways Miss Potts reminded Steve of Peggy, but Peggy would never have let stupid regulations and orders, from people who didn’t know what they were talking about, keep her from doing the right thing. And the way Miss Potts always made a point to call Stark, Dr. Stark like she had to continually point out how important and smart Stark was, was irritating. 

Steve watched the two walk past him, past Mrs. Arbogast without even greeting her, and into Stark’s office. He hadn’t been finished speaking to Stark, but obviously he would have to try to find him when he was alone if he was going to get Stark to finally pull his own weight. It was shameful how much Stark was slacking off.


	3. Chapter 3

“He’s just as handsome in his uniform as you are, platypus.”

“What? Tony, I don’t need to hear this!” Steve could hear Rhodes setting what sounded like dishes out on the counter in the kitchen.

“What’s wrong, Honey Bear? I’ll never love anyone as much as you, even if he does have the best arms I’ve ever seen.”

Steve continued his walking through Stark’s living area on the way to the kitchen. The expansive emptiness, where Stark made it obvious that the minimal furniture and decorations had been by choice instead of financial necessity, always made Steve uncomfortable in its haughty, magazine worthy splendor. The sparkling crystal and stone of his kitchen just made it worse as he rounded the corner to hear, “why couldn’t you have fixated on someone in the Air Force, man? I don’t care how pretty he is, he’s obviously not that bright, look at the branch he chose.” 

Stark turned with his mouth open to return the teasing remark, that was frankly quite insulting to Steve who was proud of his Army career, when he saw Steve’s approach and instead said, “Hey Cap, what’re you doing here? I didn’t think I was expecting you here, in my home, without knocking, for any reason. JARVIS is there an emergency I wasn’t informed of?”

“No sir. When I attempted to ask Mr. Roger’s purpose in coming and declined to allow him in, he used his emergency access codes to bypass security.”

Steve was very annoyed that Stark asked a computer program, no matter how person-like he pretended it was, instead of just waiting for Steve to tell him why he was there. Obviously, it was important, or he wouldn’t have gone through the hassle of coming to find Stark.

“Okay, what’s the emergency Cap?”

“No emergency, Stark. I need to talk to you…”

“Wait a minute. You used the emergency access code I gave you,” Steve hated it when Stark interrupted him. Couldn’t Stark, just once, stop talking long enough for Steve to finish his instructions! “You know that code has to be re-set each time it’s used, and it’s only supposed to be used in an emergency. Not just when you need to talk to me.”

Steve was very disappointed in Stark’s behavior. Howard had been much more accommodating in providing the supplies and resources that Steve needed. Stark just didn’t seem to be as dedicated to doing good in the world as his father had been. Either that or he wasn’t nearly as intelligent as Howard, after all, all of Steve’s requisitions seemed to take a long time for Tony to design. Howard’s modifications to equipment didn’t take nearly as long, and Tony has a lot more resources than Howard had to make do with. Personally, Steve would believe it was both reasons, Howard had just been more dedicated and better at the job.

As Steve, once again, argued with Stark about how he needed permanent access to a quinjet. Telling Stark, or anyone else, where and when he was going somewhere was an unnecessary and unnecessarily time-consuming activity. And this ‘getting clearance’ from the FAA took much too long; he couldn’t even turn off the planes transponder and avoid the whole thing. Stark refused to listen and had set the stupid quinjet to not work if the transmitter was off. Steve lamented the fact that Howard had obviously been too soft on his son and had never taught him to respect his betters.


	4. And So It Begins

“Do you think he’ll like it?”

“I don’t know, man. I mean, what are you trying to get him to do? Do you want him to think that ‘that Tony Stark, he sure knows his computer systems and the way around a set of armor’ or do you want him to think ‘that Tony Stark he sure is handsome’? I mean, it’s not very romantic.”

“But it’s Steve.”

Steve was about to walk into the rarely used office on the communal floor when his name caught his attention. Pausing to listen, he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“What has that got to do with anything, Tony?” That was obviously Rhodes’ voice talking to Stark.

“Well he’s not exactly the most emotional guy. He’s all tough and badass and fighting and all about getting the job done and doing it right. He’s about as military as it comes!”

“Yeah, what’s your point?”

“Well, you know he thinks of the team as his family, right? I mean he doesn’t really have a lot outside of work. So I was thinking that making sure his family was as safe as I could make them with my armor would be a good thing. And the systems are the newest and most advanced I could make them. They’ll make a nice prototype and testing bed for police departments and agencies all over the country. I mean, most police departments and federal agencies won’t be able to buy the full package, even at our discounts, but by giving the whole deal to Steve’s team we can make sure everything works properly and keep them safe, two birds with one stone.”

“And at the same time give your secret crush a little gift?”

“Rhodey… I mean, he’s… it’s for a good cause and the team deserves it. They work so hard.”

“Yeah, sure, it’s for a good cause. And it will also make him smile at you.”

“…He’s got a great smile.”

Rhodey gave a little huffing laugh, “and very pretty eyes, too.”

Steve, having frozen outside the combined office, sitting room that most of the members of his team avoided, but that Stark used for keeping all of the Avengers related files and reports, stepped back in shock at what he had just heard. Stark liked him and was attracted to him? Stark was planning to gift him and the team with new armor and some sort of computer system? And that was his attempt to be romantic? Did that mean that every time Stark gave Steve a new piece of equipment to test out, he was flirting with him in some sort of weird way?

Taking another step back, and another, until he could no longer hear the quiet conversation going on, Steve turned around and went down a level to the gym. Setting up the heavy bag Steve tried to add this new piece of information to his picture of Stark in his head.


	5. Chapter 5

Steve didn’t see Stark for almost two weeks after overhearing Stark’s conversation with Rhodes in which it was revealed that Stark was attracted to Steve. New armor _would_ be very useful for the team to have, especially if it made the team safer. A new computer system wasn’t necessary as Steve couldn’t imagine that Stark would come up with anything different enough that Steve would bother with it any more than he did already. Personally, Steve was of the opinion that Stark, and people like him, relied too much on computers and math like statistics when just going with your gut would get the job done.

Maria Hill was another person like Stark. Steve had, in the beginning, faithfully read every line of every report she sent him, but in the last month, with so little new information being given and so much of the old information graphs and charts of what was found out about Hydra’s and Bucky’s movements, he had started just flipping through them. It wouldn’t be a problem. It’s not like those graphs and charts would actually find Hydra. Really, they were just a way to make people like Stark, or Hill, feel like they were doing something. While people like Steve, who waited and were ready for when Hydra attacked, actually chased them down and accomplished things. Miss Hill might like a new computer system, but then she wasn’t really a field agent either. Steve would have to explain that to Stark when he finally gave him his little present; Stark’s time would be much better used creating new gear for Falcon, Hawkeye and Black Widow. Getting Falcon’s gear repaired would be a _much_ better use of Stark’s time.

Stark’s infatuation with Steve was something that had preoccupied his mind ever since he overheard that conversation. While it was never something he had ever thought of before, Steve wasn’t disgusted by the idea. He didn’t really like Stark that much, but he did have to admit that he was useful in his own way; when Steve could get him to do what he needed. And Stark was good looking. Not as good looking as _Stark_ thought he was, but he had nice brown eyes and Steve liked the way he had to look up to meet his own when Steve stood close to him. Steve didn’t know what he would decide to do, but when Stark got back from _yet another_ vacation to Hawaii, he would have to pay more attention to him. He would want to be sure that it was worth it if he decided to try something with Stark. 

Having a relationship with Stark would be a lot of hassle, but it would probably make it easier when Steve had to rein Stark in. No, what would be a problem, would be if Steve decided that Stark was just too much trouble to be worth it. If that happened Steve knew that Stark would throw a hissy fit and would probably take it out on the team, and Steve, as if it wouldn’t be his own fault. Steve would have to think more about if that was a chance he was willing to take, while he was busy trying to find Bucky.


	6. Chapter 6

Steve looked up from the stack of sandwiches he was making as Stark walked into the room, Miss Hill next to him, both of them looking at the tablet held in Miss Hill’s hand.

“JARVIS is good at the basic number crunching. But he always goes for the most logical next step. He’s getting better, but human intuition is still faster. Humans just don’t think logically. When trying to hack or break an encryption created by a human, purely logical thinking like JARVIS’ just isn’t as fast as a human.”

“Yes, but unless you have more time to devote to it, or you hire more computer specialists, JARVIS is of great help.

“Yeah, he’ll get there eventually. I have total faith in JARVIS’ ability to decrypt all of Hydra’s files that got dumped on the web. And he’ll do it a lot faster than most of the other groups too, outside of a few governments. It’s just that someone else, using that human intuition, might notice a pattern and get the really important info while JARVIS is busy decrypting shipping manifests from a decade ago.”

Steve looked on in alarm. He needed to come up with a reasonable excuse for why Tony should leave the Hydra files alone. Tony couldn’t find out about Bucky, it wasn’t Bucky’s fault that Howard and his wife were killed, but Tony wouldn’t be able to see it that way. Tony had never had any hardships in his life. He’d always been cushioned by the money Howard’s hard work had made, he wouldn’t be able to understand someone like Bucky and what happened to him.

“Shipping manifests from a decade ago would actually be very helpful. With them…” at that point Stark and Miss Hill moved into the office off the living area that they kept Avengers information in. Steve would give them a few moments so that it didn’t seem like he was interrupting them deliberately, before he went and told Stark to meet him in the gym for some sparing. Stark almost never did any sort of physical labor, no doubt he would need a lot of protection out of the suit. It would be better if Stark was able to at least look after himself for a few minutes until someone more competent could get to him. Maybe Steve would ask him to dinner after that, it would be a good way to see if there was any way he could put up with Stark enough to date him. Stark would probably want to go to some fancy restaurant, but Steve would let him take him to Stella’s, he’d been meaning to try it.


	7. Chapter 7

Dinner had been going well. Although Steve could have done without all the fans of Iron Man who had approached them as they were waiting to be seated in a booth next to the window. The people stopping to gawk and take pictures of Stark were a little bit over the top. And Stark hadn’t said anything, he could have easily asked people to leave them alone and they would have backed off and given them their privacy. Steve just didn’t understand why Stark went out of his way to gather crowds around him.

Then Steve had made the mistake of asking why Stark was always vacationing in Honolulu. 

“I’m not vacationing, Cap!” Steve noticed that Stark was looking at him with an expression he couldn’t interpret. “I’m building a new tower in Honolulu! I thought you knew that. It’s been all over the news. Actually, after all the research I’ve been doing and after talking to the people in Hawaii, I’ve decided to build an entire complex. There’ll be at least two towers, with one entirely devoted to housing and the other split between business and residential. Stark Industries does a fair amount of business in the Pacific Rim. And Hawaii is a good place to base ourselves for access. I mean, Japan is probably technically a little more convenient for South Korea and all the little Island nations. But I wanted to build a tower in Hawaii anyways, and this will be a good use for it.

Steve sat back as Stark just continued babbling, “one of the main reasons for SI to expand our presence in Hawaii, is to set up a reactor on each of the big islands. Hawai’i, Maui, and O’ahu all have populations of over 100,000 and they all have to ship in fuel for their power plants. It would actually be a lot cheaper and easier to just set up reactors for them. We’ll probably need more than one for O’ahu, but that’s where the first one is going. We broke ground for the reactor a month ago and are in the process of finalizing the design of the two towers closer to the city, that’s why I blocked out a lot of time on my schedule and I’ve been going back and forth so often. We still have a good chunk of land from the old warehouse district I bought. A lot of it is being torn down and we’ll have to see if we just leave it empty or if another building or two are needed.” Here Stark looked seriously at Steve, “did you know there is a significant homeless population in O’ahu, Cap. I was thinking of putting up a couple of mini towers on the other side of the main towers. I figure the units themselves will be small, but…”

“Stark, are you telling me that instead of fixing Sam’s wings, you’ve been running around Hawaii trying to save the homeless?”

“What? I’ve told you, Cap, I’m not allowed to work on the EXO flight system without authorization from the Air Force. I know that Rhodey gave you some contact information so that you could get that process started. And no, I have not just been running around Hawaii trying to save the homeless, I’ve been working. One of the reasons the cost of living in Hawaii is so high, is that everything needs to be shipped to the island. Reducing the cost of power, reducing the amount of materials that need to be shipped there would be a great help to the state. They can then use that money on other things. That’s the same reason that Alaska is also going to be getting a reactor soon. Although that one is going to be small and experimental to make sure that the extended cold doesn’t damage the equipment any. We’re also starting construction on 3 separate Arcs down the California coast. Those aren’t going to need me to do more than oversee them as we aren’t playing around with the size and output like we are in Hawaii and Alaska.”

“Just stop, Stark, stop.” Steve put up his hand as Stark again started babbling about how great he was. Saving the little people, making their lives easier. “Is this why you’ve been gone so much recently? Just how much time are all these little projects of yours going to take?” Stark had been mostly in New York for the first few months that Steve and the others had been living in the tower after Hydra was exposed. But the last month of so he had been gone more than there to help with the search for Hydra. “We’ve already identified several Hydra bases. Nat, Clint and I would be able to take most of them so far, but some of the bigger ones are going to need more fire-power. You need to be available for that, not running around the world.”

Stark sat back and looked at him, the grin from talking about himself falling off his face and an expression Steve couldn’t identify taking its place. “Where are these bases?”

“What?”

“The bigger Hydra bases you’ve already identified that you need help with. Where are they?”

“There’s one outside of Paris and another in Germany.”

“And the smaller ones. How many people are we talking here?”

“There are three small bases in Paris itself. Maybe a dozen people in each.” Steve went on to detail what they knew so far as Stark sat there watching him and thinking. All told there are 9 different bases that Miss Hill has identified within the past week. Something about having a breakthrough now that Stark was able to help with the decrypting of Hydra’s files. This was another reason for Stark to stop playing around with his ‘helping the homeless’ charade and start pulling his own weight in the Avengers. If Steve wasn’t afraid that Stark would have a tantrum, he would remind him that, if he ever wanted to move past being a consultant then he needed to prove it.

Stark interrupted Steve again and suggested they should move back to the tower as anyone might be listening in. Steve couldn’t help but be insulted, he would definitely notice someone trying to spy on them; but followed Stark out of the restaurant and back to the tower. Walking next to the aggravating little man as he tapped away on his phone. That was another thing, Steve couldn’t believe how rude people in the future were. In his time people had good manners and courtesy, now people saw nothing wrong with ignoring the person they were with to play on a toy.

It was a short 10-minute walk to the tower and by the time Steve had followed Stark into the Avengers communal living area there were half a dozen people waiting around the glass dining table, that had turned into a computer screen, waiting for them. Finding out that these people had been called by Stark on the walk back and were here to plan the assaults on the Hydra bases and coordinate with the French and German governments was very irritating to Steve. All these extra people are entirely unnecessary, and if Stark would just do as he was told and work with Steve and the others like he was supposed to, they wouldn’t need any extra help. True, they wouldn’t be able to hit all the known bases at once as there just weren’t enough Avengers, but that was excessively elaborate anyways. Finding out, in the course of their coordination with Germany, that they already knew of the German bases and were in the process of planning an assault was equally irritating to Steve. If only Stark had been doing his job months ago, they wouldn’t need to bring in all these outsiders.

Hiding his discontent and irritation at losing control of the operation Steve shot a fulminating glare at the back of Stark’s head where he was standing at the table talking to several people at once. Stepping up to the table Steve started talking to the French anti-terrorism head as he instructed her on where Steve, Nat and Clint would be most useful. The German anti-terrorism head had already turned down Steve’s suggestions as their teams were well practiced in working with each other and, he assured Steve, they didn’t need the help. The German bases were actually the ones that most interested Steve and this blocking of his authority just highlighted that Stark caused trouble in everything he did. The German head then requesting Tony Stark’s help in making sure no data was lost, was further irritating. Stark wasn’t even going to be in his armor, and the Germans wanted his help, but not Steve. Steve, Nat and Clint were all going to target the base outside of Paris.


	8. Chapter 8

“Hey, can everybody here me.” Stark’s voice came over the radio as Steve, Nat and Clint suited up along with the French anti-terrorism squad that had been assigned to take out the Hydra base just outside of the Paris metro area.

“We hear you loud and clear, Iron Man.” Responded the squad captain.

Steve glared at the captain as he switched his ear piece on, “we hear you, Stark. Have you run into a problem?” The French team exchanged looks between themselves.

“No, no. We’re just getting close to the operation, go time, and I wanted to make sure everyone is on schedule.”

“Yes, Stark. We are finishing our preparations now. No doubt you’re behind, how much more time do you need?”

“We’re ready to go, just waiting on confirmation.”

“Thank you, Iron Man.” The squad captain nodded to one of the technicians assigned to stay in the mobile command center. “Transmitting now. Switching to secure frequencies. Are you receiving us?”

“Receiving you loud and clear. Operation is a go.”

With that the contact between teams was cut. After all, Steve and his team were all in France getting ready to attack a Hydra outpost on the outskirts of Paris, while Stark was in Germany outside of Berlin. Too much contact between the teams would be a distraction they didn’t need while in such a dangerous situation. Steve was thankful that Stark’s role at least called for him to be in the Joint Counter-Terrorism Taskforce center in Berlin. It was close enough to the Berlin team that no more than a relay center had been deemed necessary for their part of the operations. And by being in the main JCTT in Berlin Stark would have access to all their computer systems and would hopefully be able to help them break into and strip all the computers in all the bases being hit.

7 Hours Later

Steve hopped out of the helicopter that had landed in front of the Joint Counter-Terrorism Taskforce Control Center in Berlin. It was just getting light out as the night was finally passing. Steve, Nat and Clint’s assault on the Paris Hydra base had taken less than an hour. There had been significantly less resistance and personnel than they had expected. The other, smaller bases in France that had been taken out at the same time had been similarly disappointing. Unfortunately for Steve and his team, they had been required to submit their reports after debriefing before they had been allowed to leave. 

SHIELD had not had such extensive debriefing questions before their fall. When Steve had asked, it had been explained to Steve that because he was not technically a member of any allied military or an agent in an allied agency, the debriefing and reports were the same as those used for consultants, and thus much more extensive. As consultants Steve, Nat and Clint were considered barely more than civilians when it came to the paperwork that needed done. They had to fill out the equivalent of a personnel file for themselves along with an after actions report so that the people later reading the report would understand their credentials, why they had been included in the raid, and their qualifications for the raid and for answering questions! It was extremely insulting, as Captain America and the leader of the Avengers, much of that should have been waived as unnecessary. But the office worker to whom Steve had expressed that had been confused and unable to understand Steve’s point of view. Steve knew it wasn’t a language barrier, as Steve spoke perfect French due to his time there during the War. In the end, no one of a high enough ranking to confirm that the paperwork was unnecessary could be found. It had taken hours!

This was what happened when Stark tried to be in charge. Steve, Nat and Clint would have definitely been enough to take out all the bases in France. Especially if Stark had just followed orders and not only fixed Sam’s wings, but also used Iron Man. The team would have been all that was necessary, but no, Stark had to bring in outsiders and make everything more complicated. Hydra was Steve’s responsibility, Stark should have realized that, Steve knew how to deal with them.

Walking into the Command Center operations room Steve walked past the Iron Man armor and noted the black singe marks and slight nicking of the paint indicative of bullet impacts. The fractures on the right bicep were the biggest damage Steve could see. 

“Stark!”

“Hmm.” Steve could see Stark at a screen looking over some sort of data he could see scrolling past, “stop, stop. Right there.” Stark pointed at a line and the woman next to him leaned forward before doing something and the screen flicked to showing something else. “Yeah, Cap?” Stark finally turned to give part of his attention to Steve. That was another thing Steve disliked about Stark, it seemed like he never gave Steve his full attention.

“Stark!”

“Yes, Cap, what?” 

Stark’s eyes finally looked away from the screen he’d been working on and towards Steve as he was striding forward. “What’s this I hear about you joining the Rahnsdorf raid?”

“They had an enhanced opponent show up at the base. He went through half the team before I was able to reinforce them. It’s a good thing I was based here in the operations center and wasn’t on one of the raids, it made my response time much faster.”

Steve stepped up to stand over Stark, sometimes he just wanted to shake the man, but he kept himself from doing so. Looking down into clear brown eyes, Steve tried to get his point across, “this is why this should have been left to us, Stark. If you hadn’t called in these people and tried to pass off our responsibility, those soldiers wouldn’t have died.”

“Died, who died! I thought the French teams came through with only minor injuries!”

Steve was frustrated, “you just said that the enhanced Hydra agent went through half the team on the Rahnsdorf raid. Those deaths could have been avoided if you had just asked me before contacting these people. If we had used our team, we wouldn’t have had any problems.”

“Whoa, Cap. Nobody died. When I said he went through half of the team before I got there, I mean that half of the team got taken out of commission and were unable to continue the fight. The guy had some sort of sonic scream or something. Most of the agents who got hit with it were just on the ground puking their guts out. I didn’t even end up going after him, one of the snipers took him out just before I got there.”

“Snipers! Tony, we don’t kill people!” Steve was very disappointed in Starks continuing lack of morals. “I knew you shouldn’t have been on a different team than me and Nat.”

“What? What’re you talking about, Cap? We’ve already received the reports from the raids that you were on and you, personally, killed three people, two with your shield, Nat killed two, and Clint killed another three.”

“What, don’t be ridiculous. Those were necessary, I’m sure if we had been here a sniper wouldn’t have been necessary.” Steve dismissed Stark’s words. He was always trying to divert any sort of blame off of himself. “If you didn’t deal with the enhanced then what were you doing?”

“Well, it was only chance that the guy turned back and put himself in position for the sniper to get him. But I was already on the way, so I just backed up the team when I got there. When the hydra goons saw me, they pretty much surrendered, except this one man. He grabbed one of the experimental guns they were storing at this facility and started shooting. Once I got him on the ground it was pretty much over. You can read my report, most likely. I wouldn’t think Walter would have a problem with you seeing it. After all, I’ve already read your reports.”

“Just get me all the reports, Stark. And make sure that we have all the information off the Hydra computers. If we need to pass anything on to the JCTT we can do it later once you and Maria have gone over everything.” Steve turned and walked away from Stark after giving his instruction. It had been a long night and he was ready to go home. Heading back to the quinjet Clint had left parked next to the taskforce’s hanger, he called to his team. If they left now, with the 6-hour difference, he should be back in time to go running with Sam. A big breakfast would be nice too.

As the three of them entered the quinjet, Clint asked, “so are we waiting for the Iron Ass?”

“Stark can make his own way home; his suit can fly.” Steve dismissed as he settled in his seat.

“I don’t know, man. That’s a long flight after a day of work and being in a firefight.”

“He’ll be fine; the armor does all the work.” The other two nodded in agreement.


	9. Chapter 9

The next few days showed again why Stark was not a team player and why Steve really needed to start keeping a closer eye on him. Not only was the information from the Hydra computers not available to Maria, Stark had actually given it all to the JCTT and they weren’t sharing. And then, not only had Stark stayed in Berlin for hours longer, waiting for his personal jet to get there instead of just flying the suit home, he had then left in the other direction for Hawaii. He had been shown on the news, walking through a hotel lobby with a beautiful brunet woman, both of them in light clothes.

Steve waited impatiently for Stark to answer the phone. It was a 6-hour time difference, so since it was 7 pm here, then it should only be 1 pm in Hawaii. Steve didn’t know what was taking Stark so long to answer the phone. The screen in front of him flashed as Stark finally answered.

“Cap.”

That Stark couldn’t even be courteous enough to greet him grated on Steve’s nerves, but he pushed his irritation down, “Stark what are you doing in Hawaii instead of coming back and working on the Hydra files?”

“Uh, my job?”

“That's not your job, Stark!” Steve barked, “stop going on vacation and come back and pull your weight. Hydra is still out there and we’re trying to do everything in our power to find and stop them, while you’re off sunning yourself on beaches and picking up loose women.”

“Cap, I’m going to pretend that you did not just say that. Obviously you’re in a bad mood, so I’ll let this one slide. Don’t think I’ll do that again, though.” And with a click the line went dead. 

Steve couldn’t believe it at first. The unmitigated gall of the arrogant, egotistical, glitterati. Stark was worse than the suits Steve had grown up around in the 1920’s. His sheer entitlement was astonishing, and Steve wasn’t going to put up with it anymore.


	10. Chapter 10

Steve had staked out the lobby of Stark tower, at least from the inside he didn’t have to look at it’s ugly architecture, as he waited for Stark to show up. He knew that Stark’s plane had landed over an hour ago, and he should have been back by now. “JARVIS, where’s Stark? Did he stop somewhere, why isn’t he here yet?”

“Sir is in his workshop, Mr. Rogers.” That was another thing, Stark’s AI insisted on calling Steve Mr. Rogers, just like Miss Potts did. Stark had to be the one that was behind that insult, there couldn’t be any other possibility. 

“I’ve been sitting here waiting for over an hour, JARVIS?! How did Stark get to his workshop without me seeing him?”

“Sir entered the building from the garage level, Mr. Rogers.”

“What?! Why? He never does that! He likes showing up in front of a crowd.” Steve quickly got up from the chair he had been sitting in, waiting, and headed with a huff for the private elevator that only went to certain designated floors, Tony’s workshop being one of them.

“I could not say, Mr. Rogers.”

Scanning his eye in the retinal scanner as well as placing his hand on the biometric pad, Steve stepped into the elevator. Ignoring JARVIS Steve punched the 74th floor button as the doors closed. Seconds later the doors opened again on Tony’s lab floor. Looking through the glass walls into Tony’s lab Steve saw that everything was shut down, all the lights were off, and the space was obviously empty of one irritating billionaire.

The little shirker was obviously hiding from him, knowing that he had crossed a line by hanging up on him two days ago. “Where is he JARVIS!? He’s not in the lab!”

“Dr. Stark is in the ARC Reactor lab in sub-basement 3, Mr. Rogers.”

“What!? But you told me he was in his lab!” This was another reason JARVIS made Steve so uncomfortable. The computer program would say anything Stark told it to. Steve never knew if what the system was telling him was true anymore than he knew whether Stark was telling the truth. Less even, because despite being very hard for Steve to understand, Stark still had body language. That ludicrous attempt by Stark to make himself a friend, was impossible to get a read on.

“Yes. Dr. Stark is in the ARC Reactor lab in sub-basement 3.”

“You said that already,” Steve huffed as he got back into the elevator and looked at the buttons, “why didn’t you tell me that when I asked where Stark was.”

“I did. Dr. Stark is in his lab.”

“Just shut up!” Looking at the rows of buttons Steve saw that there were no basement levels shown. Looking to the other side of the elevator car, he saw that that wall was blank. Gritting his teeth, “JARVIS, how do I get to sub-basement 3?”

“You do not have clearance for sub-basement 3, Mr. Rogers.”

Clenching his fist at the absurdity of have to argue with Stark’s defective computerized butler, Steve punched the button for the common level so hard he broke the plastic covering. That just went to show that Stark didn’t build things that worked. Stark was so proud of his computer butler, but the program was actually very unhelpful, and his building couldn’t even stand up to normal use.

Getting off on the common level Steve stormed over to Bruce. Remembering just who Bruce is, Steve took a deep breath and tried to hide his agitation. “Stark is in a basement lab that I can’t get in to. You need to go down there and get him. And tell him that this can’t happen again, I’m to have access to all levels, there shouldn’t be anywhere I don’t have clearance for.”

“What?”

“Stark is in a basement lab, and JARVIS won’t tell me how to get down there because apparently I don’t have clearance. You need to go get him so that he can fix this.”

Bruce took off his glasses and put them on his lap over the scientific journal he had been reading before being interrupted, “Tony’s in a basement lab?”

“Yes, that’s what I said.”

“JARVIS, where is Tony?”

Steve fumed, why is it that both Stark and Bruce continually questioned him. Why couldn’t they just do as they were told. It’s like neither one of them knew what a chain of command was. Of course, Bruce was a lot better than Stark. He didn’t go out of his way to do things differently just trying to prove Steve wrong. Bruce didn’t have to constantly shove his intelligence in Steve’s face.

“Dr. Stark is in the ARC Reactor lab in sub-basement 3, Dr. Banner.”

“So he’s doing something with the ARC reactor?”

“I can not answer that question, Dr. Banner. Would you like me to enquire of him?”

Bruce looked at Steve in question. Steve who hadn’t been paying attention as he fumed over the injustice of JARVIS calling Bruce by his title, but not Steve by his, stared back.

After staring at Steve for a moment, Bruce asked, “do you want JARVIS to relay anything to Tony?”

“What?! Just go get him so I can talk to him!” Steve ignored Bruce’s irritated look at him and stormed back to the elevator. This time punching the button for the floor that he, Natasha and Clint all had apartments on. He didn’t hear Bruce ask JARVIS to tell Tony that Steve wanted to talk to him when he was done in the lab, and he didn’t see Bruce pick up his journal and glasses and make his way to his own apartment.


	11. Are Those Muscles That I'm Seeing?

Steve walked into the gym level only to hear music with a beat he didn’t recognize playing over the speakers. Scanning his eyes over the room, Steve eventually saw Stark dancing in front of the mirrored section of empty wood flooring. A holographic woman in matching capris and a tank top was projected on the mirrored surface. Even here, in the gym, Stark included unnecessary and useless technology.

Stalking over to the dance area that was really more for Natasha’s use than anyone else’s, Steve walked right up next to Stark, “Stark! I need to talk to you!”

“What about?”

“Stark, stand still! I need to talk to you about my access codes.

“No can do, Cap. I still have 15 more minutes before I’m done. If I stop now, my heart rate will go down. Can’t have that happen. Just talk to me.” Stark continued to kick his feet and swing his arms. Copying the recording that was playing as the woman slid from side to side. “Oh, and take your shoes off, no shoes on the dance floor.”

Steve looked down at his tennis shoes and over to Stark who was also wearing a pair of tennis shoes. “You’ve got shoes on. Stop making up stupid rules.”

“Yeah, no. These shoes never go anywhere else but on this dance floor. They’ve never been outside; they’ve never even wandered around the building. * pant, pant * They’re perfectly clean. Those shoes are the ones you go running around the city in, they need to get off the dance floor before you damage it.

He ignored everything Stark had just said as the unreasonable power play that it was, Stark just wanted to be able to tell Steve what to do. It’s not like his shoes would really damage the floor, that was ridiculous. “Stark! I am trying to talk to you here! Just stop!”

“Okay, talk to me, Cap. I still have 10 minutes. I can talk to you while I do this.”

“Fine!” Stark was so frustrating, and the way he never payed attention was the worst. “I was trying to talk to you yesterday after you got back. I sent Dr. Banner to find you, but I guess you just ignored his message.”

“Hmm?”

“And that’s the thing, you can’t ignore my messages, Stark! I am the leader of this team! You can’t just go off and do your own thing. I’m calling a team meeting for after dinner tonight where we will discuss your disciplinary action. Not only did you leave all the Hydra information with the JCTT, but you also left without telling us anything, like you always do. And then you hung up on me and now you’re even ignoring it when I send people to tell you we need to talk. Your just not being a team player, Stark!”

“What are you talking about, Cap?” Stark paused briefly to give him a look that looked like surprise, but that couldn’t be it. No doubt Stark was just surprised that someone was finally calling him on his bad behavior. “Maria always knows what my schedule is going to be. I mean, she’s the liaison between Stark Industries and the Avengers Initiative, she’s paid by both of them. And she needs to know where in the world I am at any given time. I told you all that when you moved in. And I have JARVIS leave a general schedule on the Avenger’s calendar.” Here Stark shot him another confused look and finally stopped that ridiculous bouncing around he had been doing. "Clint even asked for green tea KitKat when I was in Japan six weeks ago.”

“You were in Japan six weeks ago… never mind, it doesn’t matter.” Steve folded his arms over his chest as he glared at Stark. “What Avenger’s calendar? I don’t have any idea what nonsense your talking about Stark!”

“Okaaayy.” Stark took a step back and turned as if he was going to leave.

Steve reached out and grasped a hold of Stark’s arm, he was tired of Stark’s attitude. Jerking Stark back around again Steve was interrupted in the beginning of his righteous calling out of Starks behavior.

“Ooww! Rogers, let go!” 

Stark jerked his arm out of Steve’s grasp. Stark was always so dramatic, it’s not like Steve had hurt him. 

“You need to calm down, Rogers. I don’t know what your problem is, but you will not take it out on me. Is that clear!” 

Steve scoffed mentally; he wasn’t the one with a problem. 

“Now if you’ll give me a chance…” 

Stark walked over to the bench he had left his things on.

“Goddamn, Rogers.” 

Stark took off his shirt as he was walking, before twisting his arm around as if he actually expected there to be a mark from where Steve had touched him. Stark was always such a drama queen, making a big deal about nothing. Steve watched as Stark used his t-shirt top to scrub some of the sweat out of his hair and off his neck. The shirt was bunched up and thrown over Stark’s shoulder before Stark bent over and took off his shoes, leaving them neatly next to the wall under the bench. Grabbing a tablet and a water bottle, Stark straightened back up and headed back across the dance floor to Steve.

Watching, as the low hanging sweat pants Stark had been wearing, during his demented little hopping around, tightened over his ass as he bent over, Steve couldn’t help but think of that conversations he had overheard several weeks before. Was Stark deliberately showing his ass to Steve? Did he take off his shirt so that Steve would have to pay attention to the play of muscles under his skin as his back rippled? As Stark turned and walked back towards Steve, Steve found his eyes catching on the sweat rolling down from Stark’s temple and the way his arms and biceps were actually more muscled than Clint’s. And Stark’s hip bones were just showing above his low hanging sweat pants, perfectly framing his flat stomach. 

Stark had been tapping at the tablet and muttering under his breath as he made his way back to Steve. When Stark stopped in front of him Steve was so busy staring at Stark’s surprising muscled front that he almost missed the tablet being passed over.

“Here, I’ve just reconfigured this tablet. It should be identical to the one that was left in your apartment when you moved in. I don’t know what happened to that one, but you can have this one. I’ve already had JARVIS wipe everything. This, this right here, is the Avengers calendar.”

Looking down Steve saw that Stark was pointed at a little Avenger’s A symbol with the word calendar under it. As Steve watched a slim tanned finger with light calluses running all up the side and a neat nail tapped on the icon. The icon opened and symbols appeared; an hourglass, a bow, Steve’s own shield, a triangle within a circle, a green nuclear warning sign, a hammer, and the Avenger’s A with an arrow for the crossbar.

Steve tapped on the triangle within a circle icon and a calendar opened up. He saw that over the next two weeks there were significant portions blocked off with notations like SI, 3 days at the beginning of the next week all had South Korea written on them, with the day immediately after that had Japan. Hours were blocked off on every day that he could see, most of them just with the notation SI or LAB. Steve ran his finger along the screen and the entire thing scrolled up. Scrolling through the weeks ahead Steve saw massive blocks for SI and LAB, as well as entire days with Germany and Norway, he also saw California, Alaska and Hawaii. There wasn’t a single day, not even the weekends, that Steve didn’t see multiple hours blocked off.

Stark had, by this time, moved off and made his way over to the resistance machines. Hitting the back button, Steve opened Bruce’s icon. Looking at the calendar all Steve could see were sections of LAB time for the next week. No doubt those were planned experiments that Bruce was doing and those were the estimates for how long they would take. But despite the blocked off times, the majority of Bruce’s time was not taken. Opening both Clint and Natasha’s calendars Steve was unsurprised to see nothing. Neither one of them would ever leave a written schedule or calendar around so that people could predict their movements. Knowing that the shield icon would show the same, Steve tapped on the Avengers icon. Six months’ worth of dates appeared with red circles around one in late October and another three throughout the month of December. Opening the icon Steve saw that these were all the dates of charity balls.

Looking up in irritation Steve turned until he could see Stark at the pull up bar. Stark was pulling himself upward slowly with his feet pressed together and held out in an L from his body. As Steve watched Stark pulled himself up until his chin passed the bar before, equally slowly, lowering himself back down again. Stopping in surprise, he hadn’t realized Stark could do anything like that or had that kind of muscle control. Steve took in the lean build and shinning skin being shown to him, as Stark hadn’t put his shirt back on.

Stark did several more pull ups before he dropped back to the ground, bending over and picking up the water bottle he had left on the floor next to him. Steve couldn’t help but look on as Stark’s head went back and his long throat was shown as he drank the last half of the bottle. Seeing Stark’s face in profile like that, watching his muscles work, Steve finally understood why people seemed to like Stark’s facial hair so much. It made a very nice frame as it outlined his mouth, with a thin line just following the corner of his jawline. 

Shaking himself out of his distraction Steve remembered his irritation. Making his way past the machines, Steve approached Stark where he was now stretched out on the padded floor braced on his hands and looking at the ceiling. “Stark, what are these dates in October and December that you have down for all the Avengers?”

“What?”

“These dates?” Steve waved the tablet in Tony’s general direction. “The one in October says, ‘The Maria Stark Foundation’ on it.”

“Oh, those. Yeah, you don’t have to come if you don’t want to.”

“Then why did you put them on the full Avenger’s calendar. You shouldn’t be doing that. If I want to put dates on the calendar I will, as the leader of the Avengers. But you don’t have that authority, Stark!” Steve barked at Stark, sometimes it seemed like Stark thought he was actually in charge of the team along with Steve.”

“Hey, you don’t have to come if you don’t want to, Cap. But all the Avengers are invited. It’s a charity ball.”

“For the Maria Stark Foundation?”

“Yep. My mother started it before I was even born. They do a lot in inner cities. A lot of education and family health work. I’m not as involved as I wish I was; I just don’t have time. But every October or November they have an early Holidays ball. They use the money they collect and try to make sure people have a good winter and holiday season.”

“You mean Christmas.” Steve’s response was very flat. Steve agreed with some of the newscasters last winter, people were much too afraid to just say Christmas. It was the majority holiday, what was so wrong with just using it?

Stark flipped over and now Steve could barely hear him as he bent down until his hands were holding his feet and his face was in his knees. “Eh, whatever Holiday you want, Cap. We don’t judge. The Avengers are all invited. But you don’t have to come if you don’t want to.”

Watching Stark bend in half, with his pants pulling even lower on his back as he stretched, Steve almost forgot about his irritation. “What about these dates in December.”

“They’re Holiday Balls too. Everyone’s invited, but you don’t have to go if you don’t want to.”

Stark by this time was stretched out on his back. Steve watched as Stark put his hands above his head and stretched every muscle in his body briefly. As he relaxed again a lazy smile came over his face as he sat up and looked up at Steve standing above him. The sight of that satisfied smile was very confusing to Steve.

A little out of it, and baffled at why he kept getting distracted, Steve turned and, taking the tablet with him, left the gym. He heard Stark moving around behind him as he walked out.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay. My internet access has been spotty with all the storms.

“Hey, Cap, I’ve been thinking.”

Steve looked up as Stark came around the corner to the little sitting room off the kitchen on the communal floor.

“Do you remember me telling you about the trouble I’ve been having with the mayor?”

Trouble with the mayor? Was Stark talking about the mayor of New York? “What’d you do, now”

“What?” Steve watched confusion chase across Stark’s face before the professional neutrality that Stark always seemed to show returned. “No, nobody did anything. So, I’m guessing that you don’t remember me talking to you about the quinjet and the problems with having it land on the Tower all the time.”

“What? Stark, there’s no problem with the quinjet’s landing on the Tower. They don’t need a long runway. You should know that, that’s why you built the hanger at the top of the Tower. We need them to be available in case we need to leave immediately. We can’t all fly like you can.”

“Well, yes, there is a problem. I know that the planes can land there with no problem. But the City of New York doesn’t like it.”

“Why not?”

“Why not? Because the City of New York doesn’t like unexpected and unscheduled flights. It was fine until you and the spy twins started going on more Hydra raids. But the Mayor is starting to get more annoyed, and I can’t say I blame him. I’m not exactly thrilled to have a plane that close to the buildings all the time either. I was really planning on the hanger being more for emergency use, to get somewhere that an attack was taking place. The mayor and the city planning board agreed to emergency usage, mostly because of who we are. Not as a regular thing.”

“Well we need the plane. You’re the one that invited us all to stay here. You even put the logo on the Tower. I’m sure you’ll come up with a solution that will make the mayor happy.”

“So you’re leaving it up to me? The mayor wants it to stop, and I agree with him. I was thinking that we could build a nice compound somewhere upstate. Or maybe Long Island. Somewhere with a lot of land and no neighbors to worry about.”

“That seems a little extreme to me, Stark. I’m sure the mayor will be reasonable if you just explain why we need to have the jet in the city.”

“I really don’t think he’s going to change his mind, Cap.”

“You just need to try harder, Stark. Most people will be reasonable if you just explain yourself clearly. I’ve never had a problem I couldn’t resolve by talking with someone.”

“Uh, huh.”

“Do you want me to talk with the mayor?”

Steve looked up from his lists and papers that he had been going through at Stark’s long pause. Stark was just looking at him, but Steve couldn’t interpret his expressions. He itched to draw it, as sometimes that helped him when he couldn’t understand Stark.

“…Uh, sure. You go talk with the mayor. I’ll start looking into land, just in case.”

“It’s fine. I’ll deal with it. You don’t have to worry about it anymore.”

“It’s always good to have a back-up.”

“You’re wasting your time but do what you want.”

As Stark got back up and left; taping that earpiece that he always had in, Steve looked back down at his work. Yet one more thing that Stark was supposed to take care of that Steve was going to have to do himself. Steve was already going through the information from the Air Force about Sam’s wings. The contacts that he had gotten from Stark and Colonel Rhodes had been very unhelpful. Now Steve was going to have to clean up Stark’s mess with the city’s mayor.


	13. Chapter 13

Steve looked up in expectation as he heard the elevator door open. Not every morning, but many mornings, Stark would waltz onto the common area floor, refill his cup of coffee, and chat for a moment before going downstairs to Stark Industries. It was a toss-up whether he would be wearing jeans, work boots and a colorful band shirt, or if he would be putting the finishing touches on one of his perfectly tailored three-piece suits. Either way, he was always perfectly groomed and magazine worthy, even in his ratty old jeans with holes in the knee. Steve didn’t understand how, covered in grime, with grease swiped across one high cheekbone, Stark could always look like he was ready for a photoshoot. 

As Bruce came around the corner to the kitchen Steve slumped down and bit and turned back to the eggs he had been cooking. The smile on his face turning into a slight pout. He didn’t notice Natasha watching him from the breakfast nook.

Steve didn’t notice Natasha turning thoughtful eyes from Steve to Bruce and back to the corner hiding the elevators from view. Sweeping her eyes over the counter, Natasha took in the full coffee pot that she had already gotten a cup from, and the glass full of juice that was Steve’s normal morning drink. Steve wasn’t a big fan of coffee, but every morning for the last several days that coffee pot was always filled and waiting for whomever wanted it.


	14. Chapter 14

Looking at the Avenger’s calendar Steve made sure that Stark didn’t have anything blocked off the next night. In two days, Stark had thirteen days blocked off with a combination of several days in California, a full week in Hawaii, and then another three days in Germany. Stark would be gone for almost two weeks and would be all over the world. Stark was expected for dinner in 30 minutes. The entire team, except for Thor of course, would be there. Stark had offered to order sushi from his favorite restaurant for everyone before he had to leave on his trip.

Steve looked in the mirror over the little table against the wall quickly to make sure that his hair was smoothed down properly, and his blue dress shirt was hanging correctly. He didn’t know why he had felt the urge to dress nicely, but he supposed that having dinner with his team, and he did consider Nat and Clint as friends, was enough reason to make a little extra effort. Besides, Stark had told him this particular shirt made his eyes look even more blue. Making sure his shirt was tucked into his khakis properly, Steve turned to go into the kitchen and set out wine glasses. He didn’t really know what sushi was, although he was informed it wasn’t all raw fish like he had thought, and he didn’t know what kind of wine went with it. But no doubt Stark would want something to drink. He always did. If Steve decided to give him a chance and date him, that would have to be the first change.

Setting out the glasses Steve turned around to where Natasha had been talking to Clint while they both surreptitiously watched Steve’s fiddling. The conversation was about the JCTT, and their contacts within it, who were still going over the information from the Hydra bases they had attacked. In addition to all the computer files, which had been saved instead of lost, due to the devices Stark had made that had downloaded the information on the computers faster than Hydra could destroy it. Steve was annoyed though, despite several ex-SHIELD agents being in the JCTT, there was some sort of unreasonable grudge being held against the Avengers and they weren’t sharing.

Crossing to talk with Natasha and Clint, Steve joined the conversation, “do you think you’ll be able to get any of the ex-SHIELD to share what they learned with us. After all they used to be SHIELD, they must want Hydra destroyed as much as we do, and they should know that we would be the best choice for that. We’ve already exposed so much of them and hurt them so badly.”

Natasha looked agreeing, while Clint nodded, “you would think so. They’ve known Nat and me for years. And you’re Captain America,” Clint gestured toward Steve, “they must know that we’d get it done much faster than anyone else.”

“Unfortunately, there seems to be some sort of grudge against the two of us, Steve.” Natasha started talking, “I don’t understand it, things change, it’s nothing to get upset about. We discovered new information and acted on it, that’s exactly what a good SHIELD agent does.”

Steve looked concerned, “a grudge against us, huh? Do you think maybe they’re Hydra? Maybe we didn’t find all of them, maybe some of them are still undercover. They could resent us for stopping Project Insight and Hydra.”

Natasha looked thoughtful, “that’s a possibility. They could be trying to infiltrate the JCTT the way they did SHIELD. Didn’t Stark say that the base in Germany had some sort of experimental weapons?”

“Yeah, and now they’re at the JCTT, which could mean they’re just back in the hands of Hydra.”

“I don’t know man. I don’t think the JCTT is Hydra. I mean a couple of the agents could be, especially the ones that came from SHIELD if they’re being that unfriendly to us. But it wouldn’t really have had a chance to grow yet.” 

“True.” Natasha nodded.

“But that’s the way it started with SHIELD. Peggy took in a few people and gave them second chances and that’s how it started.”

“Hey, second chances aren’t all bad, Cap!” Here Clint looked quite indignant. “Without a second chance I wouldn’t be here! And neither would Nat!”

Steve looked at Clint in alarm, “I didn’t mean you Clint. It’s good to give people second chances! You’ve just gotta be careful about it and make sure they’re ready to be loyal.”

“I don’t know if I like the JCTT having those experimental weapons Stark was talking about,” the look on Natasha’s face dismissed the last several minutes of conversation as pointless male posturing. “If they’re Hydra or not, and they might be, I’m not sure they should have those.”

“Yeah, man. But it’s not like we have any chance of getting them now. And where would we keep them? With _Stark_?”

Steve was very uncomfortable with that idea. Stark already was ahead of everything he’d ever seen anywhere else. He didn’t need even more ideas. The Iron Man armor was already too powerful for someone like Stark to have control of, in his opinion. Maybe after Steve had been dating Stark for a while, he would convince Stark to give the Iron Man armor to someone Steve approved of. Steve was sure he could find an appropriate pilot. Sam could probably help him; Steve was sure he would know someone much more fitting for the role. True, there was Colonel Rhodes, but he was much too lenient with Stark, probably afraid to really speak his mind to Stark in case Stark tried to take back the suit. Why else would Rhodes have put up with Stark for so long except as part of his Air Force job.

The elevator doors opened, and Stark came strutting into the room with Bruce at his side. “Hello everybody!”

“Stark.” Steve, Natasha and Clint all greeted them back. “Bruce.”

“The Sushi should be here in a few minutes. Security will send it up on a cart.” Tony rubbed his hands and grinned, “you’re gonna love it! Takimori makes the best Sushi in the city.”

Steve looked at Stark as he stood there grinning, forcing Bruce to walk around him to sit in the armchair he always chose. That was probably a good thing, it wouldn’t be good to crowd Dr. Banner too much. The Hulk is very dangerous. Looking back at Stark, Steve saw that he had on a light grey pinstriped suit with matching vest and yellow accents. Steve didn’t understand how someone who Steve knew had left shortly after 6:00 this morning for a breakfast meeting across town, could still look so wrinkle free and perfect 14 hours later.

“Hey, Cap. Have you ever had sushi?”

“No, Stark. Raw fish isn’t really a meal in my opinion. Why did you choose sushi, anyways?”

“You should try new things! Expand your horizons, Cap! I just wanted to make sure that I was here and could help you experience something new!” Tony waved a hand sideways as the other tucked itself into his pants pocket, “and don’t worry about it, I got the entire menu so you can try everything. I’m sure you’ll find something that you like.” Tony grinned widely. 

Steve was concerned, sometimes he wasn’t sure that he could trust Stark. That grin was so amused and self-assured that Steve couldn’t help but feel that he was being set up for a mean trick.

The rest of the night passed fairly fast as both Stark and Bruce had informed the rest that they needed to get up early in the morning. Bruce was planning to start a long experiment and wanted to start early. While Stark needed to meet with several departments at SI before he would be gone for 2 weeks. The sushi had come up in the elevator on a cart, packaged in half a dozen large flat boxes. When the boxes were opened a colorful display of neatly packed and beautifully arranged food was shown. Steve had faithfully tried everyone else’s favorites. It had been awful, and Stark had done nothing but grin at Steve the entire time. Bruce, Clint and Natasha had made sure that Steve tried almost everything on offer. They were so nice and considerate in their helping Steve to try something new and telling Steve stories and information about every new dish, especially Natasha and Bruce, that Steve couldn’t bring himself to tell them what he really thought of the sushi. Bruce in particular was really enjoying the dinner, telling them all that he hadn’t had such good sushi in years.

Stark had been right. Not everything was raw fish. But it was all awful. Steve couldn’t understand why anyone would like it. And everything smelled fishy now. It wasn’t anything like he was used to, and Steve would be happy to never have it again. Stark had been the only one to not push new foods at Steve after the initial opening of the box and pointing out of his personal favorites. Instead Stark had spent the entire time grinning at Steve. Steve just knew, that Stark had been laughing at Steve, who was too polite to tell his friends no, and that he didn’t like this new food. 

By the time Steve had left the common room and made his way back to his apartment, he was incredibly angry at Stark. Stark had put him in that position and then laughed at him. Yeah, Steve was pretty sure Natasha had also realized he wasn’t enjoying the sushi, but at least she had the good manners to pretend she didn’t know. She didn’t spend the entire night laughing at Steve.

As Steve walked off the elevator on his floor, he saw a white plastic sack hanging from his doorknob. Stark Tower was a fully secured building, and Steve couldn’t see how anyone could have left anything on his door like that. It had never happened before, although he had only been living here a few months.

Reaching out to unhook the bag, Steve’s phone beeped. Pausing to check his messages Steve saw a text from Stark _‘I could tell you weren’t enjoying the sushi. I guess now we know. Enjoy the burgers.’_

Unhooking the bag and looking inside, Steve saw the take out boxes to his favorite burger joint just across the way in Brooklyn. They didn’t deliver as far as Steve knew, so Stark must have sent someone out to get it. Steve thought about Stark being in love with him; maybe Stark went and got it himself. That was very nice of Stark, to notice like that and not say anything in front of everybody so as to not embarrass Steve, but to still help him out afterwards. Even Natasha hadn’t noticed, but Stark had. Steve hadn’t known he could be so thoughtful and observant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, Steve is inconsistent here. Within a very short period of time. But I did that on purpose. _People_ are inconsistent. No one is internally consistent in all ways all the time, that's unrealistic in my opinion.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay. Ran into a problem with my editing. The rest of the chapters probably won't be coming out as fast. But it is still mostly written so the delay shouldn't be _too_ bad.

Walking off the elevator on the executive floor Stark’s office was on, Steve made his way to Stark’s door. Opening the door and walking in Steve was surprised to see Stark standing at the large conference table with Miss Potts and another eight people he didn’t know. Stark looked up from where he was standing, he had his jacket off, leaving him in just his vest, shirt sleeves rolled up, showing tanned forearms. 

Stark put down the packet of stapled together pages, “Yes, Cap, is there something you need?”

Steve didn’t pay attention to the suits seated around the table who were looking at him in disdain. “I was coming to get you for dinner.”

“Oh.” Stark looked briefly confused at the response. “I didn’t know there was another team dinner tonight. I thought that was last night, you know, with the Sushi?”

“Yes. But you didn’t have anything blocked off in your calendar tonight, so I was going to let you take me to Stella’s again. Or maybe Romeo’s, I’m sure you could get us in there.”

“What?” Stark exchanged a look with Miss Potts who always seemed to be around getting in Steve’s way. “Well, as you can see, I’m a little busy. We still have to go over quite a few of the contracts and proposals I’m going to be presenting while I’m gone. I don’t think we’ll be done for hours.”

“But your calendar said you would be free tonight, I made plans.”

“Mr. Rogers,” Miss Potts stood up from where she had been sitting on the couch at the seating area surrounded by piles of paperwork. “While Dr. Stark’s general calendar might have indicated that he would be free tonight, as you can see that has not proven to be the case. As it is, he will be very busy for the next several hours. Furthermore, when making plans, especially plans that include other people, it would behoove you to actually speak to that other person to prevent just this situation. If you had spoken to Dr. Stark at any time, he would have told you his schedule had changed, and he did not have time to _take you to dinner_ tonight.”

Steve looked at Miss Potts before turning back to Stark, “I guess I can wait for an hour for you to get finished. After all, Miss Potts is right, I didn’t really give you much warning. If it’s going to be so late though, we should probably just go to Stella’s.”

At this point the man sitting across from Miss Potts turned to look over at Steve. “Mr. Rogers...”

“Captain Rogers,” Steve interrupted. It was bad enough that Miss Potts and JARVIS called him that and repeated attempts to correct them kept getting ignored. He wasn’t going to let it spread to other people.”

“What?” The man in the suit turned so that he was able to look more fully at Steve, but he still didn’t have the curtesy to stand as he spoke to him.

“You will address me as Captain Rogers.”

“…Very well. As I was going to say, Dr. Stark has already ordered food to be delivered for all of us. He always does that when meetings go so late. And we will not be finished within an hour anyways.”

“He’s right, Cap.” Stark spoke, getting Steve’s attention. “We’ll probably be here for several more hours at least. We’ve already given our standard order to Alba.”

Steve was frustrated, here he was trying to determine if Stark would be worth all the trouble of dating, but so far, the answer was no. If Stark was so attracted to Steve, then he should be happy to spend time with him. And also, be happy that Steve had gone to the trouble of trying to surprise him. After all, spending time with the person you're dating, and being spontaneous, was supposed to be romantic.

“Fine,” Steve was not happy to have his plans ruined. “I suppose you can just call this Alba and add on the order for me. I’m sure it won’t be as good as Stella’s, but I’m willing to try new things. I’ll just eat in here with you. I’m sure that if I help keep you on task, you’ll realize that you don’t have nearly as much work as you think you do.”

“ _Excuse_ me.”

Steve looked to the woman who had spoken. She was an overweight brunet who had been sitting two down from Stark’s position at the round table. 

“What?”

The brunet woman stood up and Steve could see that she wasn’t nearly as fat as he had thought she was. Although solid, it was really her unfortunately chubby face that had given that impression as she was sitting. “Why would you think that you would be permitted to stay as Dr. Stark and Miss Potts went over contracts and negotiation strategies with us. This is all proprietary information. You do not work for Stark Industries. You also do not work for any of the companies or governments we will be talking about. As such it would be the height of indecency for you to think you could just shove your way into Dr. Stark’s business. Not only would letting you have access to some of the information we will be discussing be illegal, but even that which we are not legally required to keep confidential is still private company business.”

“What are you doing here, then? Steve asked, affronted.

“We, _Mr. Rogers_ , are Stark Industries senior lawyers. Even _if_ Dr. Stark had lost all sense and tried to let you stay, _we_ Mr. Rogers would not speak about _anything_ any front of you. You seem to have no sense of the appropriate way to communicate with other people regarding your personal intentions. From speaking to you once I can already tell you are rude, arrogant and self-entitled. You seem to think you are very important and Dr. Stark should just drop everything to indulge you. In addition to that, as evidenced by the criminally negligent as well as horrendously stupid and short-sighted releasing of all SHIELD information, you have absolutely _no_ idea or regard as to the consequences of your actions!”

Steve was extremely angry by this point and took a step forward to confront this _woman_ who dared to not only disrespect him but also question his actions! “WHO DO YOU THINK…”

At that point Stark had made his way around the table and taking Steve by surprise had grabbed his bicep and spun him around to face the door. Stopped in his righteous wrath, Steve didn’t really think as Tony babbled, “okay, Cap. I think that’s enough. Janet’s a little bit of a stickler for privacy and discretion especially when it comes to the company’s legal matters. You’re looking very nice by the way, that’s a great leather coat. I mean it’s a little hot for a leather coat, but to each his own. You know maybe you should go on a little motorcycle ride. I’m sure tonight would be a lovely night for it. Work up that appetite you were talking about.”

By this time, they were through Stark’s office and in Mrs. Arbogast outer office, although the woman herself wasn’t there. Almost reaching the hall door, Steve finally came to himself and wrenched his way out of Tony’s hand, “who was that horrible woman? How dare she speak to me that way!”

“That was Janet Rosario, she’s been in charge of the SI legal team for years now.”

“Hmpf.” Steve was unimpressed, “Fire her.”

“What?” Tony took a step back from Steve as he looked at him flatly.

“She spoke to me very rudely and was very disrespectful about things she has no knowledge of. She obviously thinks she’s more important than she really is. And someone who speaks about things they have no idea of like that, can’t possibly be good at their job.”

“Uh… right. Well, I’ll see you later, Cap. But I really do have to get back to work. Hopefully we won’t have to be here too late tonight.” Stark took a couple steps back. “Maybe you should go on the motorcycle ride I suggested. You’re looking a little agitated there, I bet you’ll feel better.”

Steve watched as Stark turned and made his way back into his office. Stark was right, he was feeling a little agitated. Maybe he _should_ go on that motorcycle ride Stark suggested. Stark was so clever and always looking out for him.


	16. Chapter 16

Steve looked up from the chair he had stuck in the southern window of his apartment living room. He had been absorbed in his drawing as he filled in another page of the sketch book, but he thought he had heard something. Hearing the knock come at the door again, Steve got up to answer it.

“Hey, Steve,” Clint was on the other side of the door. “I’m in the mood to go out and have a beer or something. Maybe play some pool. Wanna come, Nat’s coming too?”

Looking at the fading light through the window, “sure. Just let me get my wallet.” Steve walked back into his bedroom and picked his wallet and keys up off the dresser. Walking back into the living room, Steve saw that Clint was paging through the sketch book as he waited.

“This is pretty good, Steve.”

“Yes.” Steve had always been proud of his art. He didn’t really like Clint just going through his sketch book without asking, but he supposed that that was what happened when your friends are former spies. 

Looking down he saw that Clint was looking at one of the drawings he had done of Stark. They had spent part of last Saturday in the common room watching movies. Stark had tried to explain that there were culturally significant movies, songs and books that had impacted society and vocabulary to such an extent that it was hard to explain without watching them. Stark had spent the afternoon doing paperwork and sending those electronic letters everyone used nowadays. It hadn’t been a very intimate date, with half of Stark’s attention on his work. But he always paid attention and answered any questions Steve had when one of the movies made a reference he didn’t understand. Although Steve didn’t appreciate Stark reminding him to read the history books he had recommended.

“Ya gotta lot of Stark, here. I didn’t think ya liked him that much.”

“I don’t, really. I mean, he’s alright sometimes. But you have to admit he’s a good looking swell.”

“Eh, if that’s what ya like.”

Steve took the book back and dropped it on the chair, “he’s got an interesting face, very expressive. And if you watch him his goatee is always changing just a little bit. And I’ve been trying to figure out his tells, somewhat. After all, he’s always lying, but if it wasn’t so obvious, I probably wouldn’t know.”

“Oh, yeah, like what?”

“Well, like that stupid idea that he has seven doctorates.” Steve shook his head as he led Clint out into the hall and turned to lock the door. Steve’s back was to Clint or he would have seen the flash of surprise and then laughter on his face before it was wiped clean. “I mean, that’s just ridiculous. Nobody has seven doctorates, what would anybody even need that many for. Besides, that would be a lot of work, and Stark’s always trying to get out of any _real_ work.”

Steve went out with Natasha and Clint and didn’t think anything of the little giggly conversation they had at the beginning of the night. Although the speculative looks thrown his way as he took his turn with the pool cue did give him a little feeling of worry that he brushed off.

“So you and Stark are dating now, huh?” Clint slurred a little as he slumped at the table they had grabbed at the back corner of the bar. They had had to politely ask a small group to move, but both Clint and Natasha had refused to sit anywhere more exposed. Steve thought that made sense.

“Yeah. We’ve only just started, but I like letting him take me out to eat. Although sometimes, I just wish he would choose a normal bar or burger place, like this. He’s always saying he has to introduce me to everything, show me all the different kinds of restaurants that are in Manhattan now. He keeps going on about something called fusion.”

“What else d’ya do?”

“He’s been helping me go through movie lists so that I can get more references. He works a lot during them, and that’s really irritating, but he always answers my questions if I don’t get something. And he had JARVIS make up a song list for me so that I can go through each year. He told me the 70’s were going to be terrible, but I had to listen to them anyways to understand just how great the 80’s are. Books too, but I’m not that interested in politics and economics, the military history was interesting though.”

“Food, movies and songs, huh? Ya had sex, yet?”

“Clint! No, of course not. I’m still feeling him out, I’m not ready for that yet. I’m still trying to decide if I want it to go there?” Steve was embarrassed at Clint's question and happy that Nat seemed to be occupying herself with the group of college kids playing pool. 

Clint folded down on the table and stared across at Steve, “and Stark’s okay with that? He’s such a slut, I’d ‘a think he’d ‘a been tryin’ ta get in yer pants on the first date?”

“He’s actually been a gentleman about it. We haven’t even kissed yet. Stark knows I’ve never been in a relationship with a man before, he’s letting me set the pace.”

“Huh? Never would’a thought.”


	17. Chapter 17

Natasha grabbed a hold of Tony as he was walking past her absorbed in the tablet in his right hand, while he was taking a drink of his coffee in his left. 

Steve was following in Tony’s wake as they were on their way to the lab to look over some information Tony had found as he worked through the SHIELD data dump. He stepped to the side as Tony was jerked to a halt and both the coffee cup and the tablet fell from his hands.

“Fuck, ow! Natasha, use your words, you have them for a reason!” Tony was brushing the coffee that had spilled down the front of his t-shirt before shaking his hand out to the side.”

“Language!” Steve snapped. There was no reason for Stark to always be so vulgar. Especially in front of Natasha, who was a lady.

Steve frowned in disapproval as Stark threw him an irritated side glance before rolling his eyes and bending down to get his tablet. “You can clean that up, Widow. After all, you’re the one that jerked me so hard I dropped it.”

“No, clean up your own mess Stark and stop being so dramatic. How else was I supposed to get your attention?”

“I don’t know, maybe _saying my name_? Violence isn’t always the answer.”

“I need some funds for a sting I have in the works. The mark thinks I’m high up, so I need a blank credit account.”

“Uh, no. Use your own funds.”

“Stark!” Steve barked. That was just unreasonable, Tony was a billionaire, it’s not like he didn’t have the money to spare. “Natasha never would have asked for it if wasn’t important.”

“Yeah, no. You can send me a report on who this person is and what you’re hoping to find, and I’ll go over it. But I’m not SHIELD and I’m not your bank, I really doubt you’ll change my mind. If it’s that important, use your own funds, or give it to one of the agencies.” With that Steve watched Tony step over the spilled coffee and broken cup and continue to the elevator.

Turning to Natasha Steve said, “don’t worry about it. You can use one of the Avengers accounts to cover anything you need. I’ll get Tony to change his mind.”

Natasha nodded and walked off. 

Steve was about to do the same when his foot came down on a piece of broken coffee cup, grinding it into the tile. Grimacing Steve looked down at the puddle surrounding the pile of broken porcelain. Walking back into the kitchen Steve got the cleaning supplies out, Stark would have to make this up to him on their next date.


	18. Chapter 18

“No, no, I’m not planning to recruit anymore criminals, just this one. I just wanted to run it by you, see what you thought.

“Yeah, not a good history. But, I mean, he deserves a second chance doesn’t he. Not even a second chance really, he deserves _a_ chance. He didn’t really have much of one before, he was what they made him to be. He broke himself free; you have to admit, doing that was impressive and showed a lot of will. I’ve never heard of anyone doing that before. Not the way he did, and he survived too.”

“Oh, no. I am not making this call. I am entirely compromised; this one is up to you.”

“No, I think that sounds good. When he’s ready, maybe we can offer him a place. His family’s all gone. I just hope it will be enough to keep him on our side.”

“If he can stay free, I think he’ll be a good asset. I’m sure he’ll have to learn some new rules. There will be things he used to do as a matter of course, that just wouldn’t be acceptable. But he seems to be determined to be his own man and I think we should encourage that.”

Well, and his expertise is useful to. He’s used to working with high stakes and lots of pressure. If he can get over the change and the culture shock, he should fit right in. It’s not like he’ll be dead weight; it will be similar enough to what he’s used to that he should be good at it. And hopefully that will help him stay on the straight and narrow.”

“No, I never would have asked if it wasn’t for Steve.”

“Having this waiting for him, something to help him feel less like a failure and more like a contributing member… well, it’ll be good. We’ll have to watch him closely though, make sure none of his old associates try to creep back in and use him to get inside. I definitely think he should be monitored. And hey, maybe he'll decide he wants to do something entirely different with his life. Change everything, do something peaceful like become a fisherman, or something.”

“Thanks. I’ll let you get back to work.”

***

Steve gritted his teeth where he stood on the other side of the door to Stark’s office. Pulling his hand back so as to not crumple the doorknob, he clenched his fist. 

At first it had sounded like Stark was finally doing something good; something selfless. Acknowledging Bucky’s strength like that. Acknowledging that Bucky needed a chance and that he was so strong to have pulled himself away from Hydra like that. But like always he had to go and ruin it. Talking about him like a thing, implying that Bucky needed watched. That Hydra would use Bucky to get inside the Avengers. That would never happen; Steve was a good judge of character. 

There was a reason Steve didn’t want Stark involved with Bucky. It was Steve’s call, not Fury’s, no matter what Stark thought. Bucky didn’t need help to be a good person, he was better than Stark. Always would be. And as soon as he remembered Steve, he'd come back, fight at his side, _'till the end of the line.'_


	19. Chapter 19

Steve walked into Mrs. Arbogast’s office. It was late, but Stark had never come upstairs for dinner despite the fact that he had been gone for four days this time. Sometime Steve didn’t even know why he tried with Stark. Stark was just _bad_ at dating; he was always disappearing, he never listened to Steve, and he was so disconnected at times. Seeing that the front desk was empty, Steve walked past it and opened the inner door to Stark’s office. 

Stark was leaning over a mock-up of a building listening to a woman who was pointing at it. Miss Hill was standing next to him holding a yellow notepad under her arm and a StarkTab in her hand. Two more people were also standing and watching as well.

Stark looked up and grinned, eye’s crinkling up as he exclaimed, “Cap! Perfect timing! I was just going over possible compound designs with the architect. Come look!”

Stark beckoned at Steve with one hand as he turned to the woman who had been speaking just a moment ago. “This is Steve Rogers, Captain America. He’s the one who’s really in charge of the Avengers.”

Stark looked back towards Steve, puzzled that he hadn’t moved from his place at the door. “Steve, come meet Rebecca Stone. She helped design Stark Tower.”

Steve could feel his hands clenching into fists as he took in the group in front of him. There was a little Avengers ‘A’ on the side of the model. Stark was obviously talking about that compound idea that he’d tried to push onto Steve a couple of months ago. He’d told him that it was extreme and unnecessary, but it was just like Stark to ignore everything anyone told him.

“Miss Stone.” Steve nodded at the poor woman. It wasn’t her fault that Stark never listened. No doubt she would be disappointed when she no longer had a job, but that was Stark’s fault. “If you’ll excuse us, I need to talk to Stark. It’s important Avengers business.”

“Sure, sure.” Stark agreed as Miss Stone nodded. Miss Hill put down the pad of paper but kept her tablet, as she walked after them.

Steve followed Stark into the hallway and down to a set of doors on the other side. He was fuming at Stark’s _need_ to show off and fling his money around at everyone all the time. 

“Here we go. It’s the boardroom, perfectly soundproofed.” Stark flicked several switches on the wall. Only two of them seemed to be light switches, but Stark flicked at least three more. “Go ahead, what’d cha’ need.”

“What was that!” Stark had leaned back onto the table positioned in the center of the room, ignoring all the chairs. Steve stalked up to him and stood over him staring down at him from a few inches away.

“What?” Stark tilted his head back a bit to keep looking Steve in the eye. It always pleased Steve a little bit to be able to look down on people. Even now, his expectation, when he got up in people’s faces, was that he was going to have to look up at everyone. Being able to stand over Stark was especially gratifying as Stark thrilled and delighted in being contrary and doing everything with his own _style_. It frustrated Steve, that no matter what he did, Stark just never backed down. Someday, he thought, he wouldn’t hold back and would take Stark up on his dare and just _show him_ who was in charge.

“That, back there with the dame!”

“You mean Ms. Stone? The architect?”

“Yes! We talked about this, Stark. Building some sort of compound is unnecessary. The Tower is fine. Wasting money just to waste money… Pandering to your ego when you could do something that’s actually useful for once!”

By this time the happy grin that had been lingering on Stark’s face was entirely gone. Steve wasn’t surprised to see the blank expression that Stark always reverted to when he knew he had done something wrong and Steve was forced to reprimand him. Miss Hill was still standing by the door clutching her tablet. Steve was a little sorry for dressing down Stark in front of her, but it’s not like she would disagree with anything Steve was saying. Miss Hill, despite her apparent dislike for fieldwork and love of useless planning and computer models had always struck him as a fairly practical person. 

“Rogers, do you remember _why_ I first brought up the idea of a compound?” Stark’s voice was low and empty.

“Some nonsense about the city not liking the quinjet flying though it all the time.” 

“And do you remember what you said you were going to do?”

“Talk to the mayor. And I did that!” Steve was getting frustrated. Stark was arguing again! And bringing up problems _he_ had created that Steve had already fixed! “What’s your point, Stark! I handled your little problem. The mayor was very reasonable!”

“Yes, he told me about that. He told me that he had explained the anxiety that was created by having planes flying through the city and close to the buildings to you. That you had agreed that that was a bad thing and that people shouldn’t have to be afraid of buildings being hit by planes. _Like they were on 9-11!_ That the two of you had _agreed_ that the quinjets should only be used for emergencies and that non-emergency missions would take off from outside of the city.”

“Get to the point!” Steve didn’t like Stark’s tone.

“So, Captain, the day after you had that little _talk_ with Mayor De Rosa, you, Romanoff and Barton flew right through the city for a little _reconnaissance_ mission in Argentina. There was no emergency, no attack, absolutely no reason that you needed to disrespect the mayor so deliberately. You might as well had told him to his face that he was an unimportant nobody that you don’t have to listen to. That you were going to do what you wanted, and to _hell_ with him!”

“What? No! That was an important mission!” Steve didn’t like the way Stark was looking at him. He was watching him the same way he used to watch Fury and sometimes still watched Natasha. He didn’t think Stark had ever yelled at him before either, not since they had all moved into the tower.

“No, it wasn’t, Rogers! It was entirely unimportant. You didn’t learn a damn thing. And more to the point, _it wasn’t an emergency!”_

By this time Stark had stood up from where he had been leaning on the table and had stepped into Steve’s space. It was only Stark’s short stature that was keeping Steve from classifying his behavior as inappropriately threatening.

“Do you want to know the consequences of your little _non-emergency_ jaunt, Rogers? When mayor De Rosa didn’t hear of any Avengers missions or emergencies on the news he called and asked me. I had to ask Maria where the three of you had gone as I hadn’t even known you had left, let alone talked to the mayor. When De Rosa learned that you hadn’t even waited 24 hours after talking to him before you disregarded everything the two of you had agreed upon, he immediately revoked the zoning and permissions that allowed me to have a plane land in the middle of the city at all!”

“What?! But he can’t do that!”

“Yes, he can, Rogers! This is a skyscraper, not an airport! The _only_ reason that I got those permissions and zoning requests was because of _who I am!_ The city can take it away at any time and for any reason! I had to assure the mayor that I would immediately start working on the construction of a compound outside of the city before he would allow that plane into city airspace again. You might not have been around for 9-11, but _I_ was. It’s not just an interesting historical note, it was a national tragedy and over three thousand people died. And it happened in _this city_!”

“I _know_ that!” Stark was talking to him like he was an idiot. “That mission was critically important. We had information that a Hydra base was pulling in personnel from several bases, the only reason they would do that is if they were planning a major incident. We _needed_ to go and look for ourselves. The mayor agreed that use of the jet for important missions was still allowed.” 

Stark looked away from Steve as he walked around the table to sit in one of the chairs on the other side. “It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter whether that was a super-important mission or not. Whether you and mayor De Rosa disagree on what exactly constitutes an important mission, or not. He doesn’t care. The quinjet is basically gone. That little trip you took a couple of weeks ago was the last one. If you want to have a plane readily available without spending hours getting to the airport, then a compound out of the city is the only option.”

Steve straightened up, pulling his chin up as he looked across the room at Stark. Stark was swaying slightly in his chair as he looked back. Thinking about what had been said so far Steve nodded, asked for everything Stark had so far, and left the room. He needed to talk some things over with Natasha, he had an idea about what was really going on and wanted her opinion. Natasha, after all, was much better at interpreting Stark’s behavior and explaining it.


	20. Chapter 20

Steve looked at the compound model that had been set up in the team common room. He didn’t like this, if Stark had just done his job better, they wouldn’t be having to move. The mayor had actually put off the meeting with him several times since their trip to Argentina. His secretary was always willing to put Captain America on De Rosa’s schedule, but every time something came up and the Mayor ended up cancelling. 

Mayor De Rosa couldn’t possibly be that busy. It was like dealing with another Stark.

Steve looked up from his frowning contemplations of the model as the elevator dinged. 

“Yeah, I’ll be there by tomorrow night. Uh huh. Sure, sounds good.”

Steve watched as Stark came into the room, he was always talking to someone on the phone. Didn’t he ever get tired of hearing his own voice?

Stark was dressed in the jeans and t-shirt combination he wore most often in the lab. His hair was messy, and he obviously hadn’t shaved in a while, his normal goatee was more stubble than anything. Stark said goodbye to whomever he was talking to before collapsing in one of the club chairs with a humpf. 

“Hey, Cap, what’s up?”

“Stark,” Steve frowned at the little man, “I still don’t like this compound idea.”

Steve watched as Stark groaned dramatically and threw his head back against the chair. “Well, it is what it is. If you can convince the Mayor, more power to ya. But I’m not going to hold my breath. Renovations are started already, give it two more months and everything will be done.”

Steve frowned some more. “You can’t like it either. How are you going to like living way out in the country?”

“What?” Stark rolled his head to look at him out of the corner of his eye. He was so rude, not looking at the person he was talking to; his _boyfriend_.

“You won’t like living way out there either, away from the city. You can’t tell me you’ll like living in the country.”

“I lived away from the city for years, Cap. The Malibu house wasn’t exactly close to any major cities. It was nice, quiet. I’ve never minded a bit of a drive as long as I wasn’t stuck in traffic. And you do realize I’m still going to have the penthouse here. Just because the Avengers have to move, doesn’t mean SI doesn’t still own the tower.”

Steve grimaced; he wasn’t looking forward to it. He’d always lived in a city when he wasn’t at war. It’s what he knew. Stark still owning the tower just made it worse, more of an insult.

“Anyways, I came to find you to tell you, my schedule has changed. I’ll be out of town for the foreseeable future.”

_“What?”_

“What?”

“Where are you going! When are you going to be back? You can’t just do this, Stark! You need to be available if you want to be on this team.”

Steve didn’t understand the look he was getting, “I’m only a consultant, Captain. I don’t have time to be any more than that. Unless there is an actual _emergency_ , I have to focus on my job and the company.”

Steve watched Stark get up out of his sprawl in the chair, “what about dinner tonight? I was going to let you take me out again.”

Another unreadable look crossed Stark’s face, Steve desperately wished his had his charcoals in front of him. 

“Ah, well. You’re going to have to go out with the spy twins tonight. I’m heading out in no more than an hour and a half. I’ll have JARVIS call the Met so that you can still go to the exhibit on Saturday. Dr. Horngest might want to show you around personally. But just tell him if you want to be left alone to wander, he won’t mind.” Stark was talking as he walked to the waiting elevator. The doors slid shut before Steve realized that Stark had just cancelled the one date he had really been looking forward to.  
-


	21. Chapter 21

Steve stood in the common room, Natasha and Clint watching from the furniture as he fumed, waiting in front of the elevator. Stark was late, he should have been here by now. “JARVIS, _where_ is Stark?” he grated out.

“Sir has gone to the penthouse.”

“ _What!_ I told you to bring him here.”

“Sir disagreed and directed me to take him to the penthouse.”

“Stark doesn’t _get_ to _disagree_ , that’s why I used the emergency override!”

“Your emergency override has not been reset since the last time you used it. It is invalid.”

_“WHAT!”_

Stark’s voice, obviously a recording, came out of the speakers, “yeah, no, J. I’m tired of Spangles thinking that him running out of ketchup is an emergency, and he should have access to the penthouse. I would never just walk into his home whenever I feel like it, without asking or even calling ahead. We’re not resetting the emergency code. You’ll just have to use your judgement, no more overrides. Besides the compound will be ready soon, just take Rogers off the override list altogether, he won't need it anymore.”

Steve could here Clint stifling a laugh behind him and flushed an angry red. That had only happened _once_. Besides, as Stark’s boyfriend he _should_ have access to Stark. God only knows what he would get up to without someone watching him.

“Well, Cap. I guess we’re just going to have to wait to find out what happened.”

“JARVIS! Get Stark on the phone!”

“Sir is unavailable. I will remind him you would like to speak to him. However, he is unlikely to be available until morning, outside of an emergency.


	22. Chapter 22

“Mr. Rogers.”

Steve startled and looked up from the stove, it was 7:30 and he had just gotten back from his run. He was never going to get used to JARVIS’ disembodied voice; it was creepy. “What?”

“Sir is on the line if you would like to speak to him.”

“Hey, Spangles. J said you wanted to talk?”

“Stark! Where are you! Get down here so I can talk to you.”

“No can do, Cap. I’m already gone.”

“Gone? Gone where?”

“On the way to the airport, you know I’m heading back to Hawaii today. I need to make a stop in Washington, so I headed out early. You were gone on your run when I left. You’ll just have to talk to me now.”

Steve growled, Stark had been especially obnoxious recently, “what was that yesterday!”

“What?”

“My override codes didn’t work! We need those to be able to respond to an emergency. You need to reset them right now!”

“Yeah, that’s not happening, Cap. You use them whenever JARVIS tells you I’m busy so that you don’t have to wait. You’ve interrupted, I don’t know how many business calls and meetings, for trivial things like asking me to find your bike when it was towed by the police. Something that, as an adult, you should have been able to deal with on your own. Or the ketchup thing, that was beyond rude. I don’t think you understand that you wanting something done right now, is not the same thing as an emergency. J is perfectly capable of telling me when there’s an emergency, I’ll just have to rely on him.”

“Yesterday was an _emergency_!”

“Yeah, how so?”

“Iron Man was seen attacking a weapons convoy! You didn’t have permission to go on mission!”

“Uh huh. You do remember just what Iron Man was created to do, don’t you, Rogers? I don’t need permission from you to continue destroying Stark weapons in the hands of terrorists. It’s rare, now days, for me to get word of anyone moving my stuff. I certainly wasn’t going to let it get away.”

“You can’t be doing this, Stark! This is a team! You don’t get to decide to just go off on a mission without telling me!”

“Like you and the spy twins and Wilson are always doing? What’s this really about?”

“You never follow orders! What if we had needed you, you wouldn’t have been there. Besides, Nat says it would have been a lot more valuable to find out where those weapons were going. You shouldn’t have done it. You don’t know what kind of trouble you could cause!”

“Yeah, no. I’m not leaving my weapons out there as bait because spy twin one, wants to,” Stark was so disrespectful of Natasha. Natasha said it was hurt feelings because of the negative review she gave him that made him a consultant instead of a full member. “There’s no trouble, I liaised with both the US military and the country I entered. Those weapons aren’t going to be fired on civilians now. Everyone’s happy, the end.”

“No! You need to get back here Stark! You can’t be going off on your own. _I’m_ the leader of the team!”

“Yeah, and I’m not on the team,” Stark didn’t give him a chance to explain that that didn’t matter, Steve was still in charge. “Listen, Spangles, I have to go. I have a call from Pepper. It was a big convoy, I haven’t seen so many of my weapons altogether like that in a long time. So I’ll be in Washington doing an after Iron Man debrief with some generals then I’m off to Hawaii. I’ll still be there when the compound is opened up to you. Maria has been involved every step of the way, have fun breaking in the new building. Bye!”

The click of the phone disconnecting only made Steve more angry. He was starting to think this dating thing wasn’t going to work. Stark was pretty, but his attitude and personality were terrible. Fuming, Steve stormed into the gym and straight to the heavy bag. 

They hadn’t even kissed yet, even though Steve had been trying to build up to that. Nat had always said Stark was easy to lead around with the right incentive, it shouldn’t be this hard. Although for being such a playboy, Stark was really bad at reading cues. No doubt his previous partners had only wanted Stark for his money, it was a good thing that Steve was here now; he only wanted the best for Stark.

Stark still had a subpar personality, but he’d gotten a little more attached than he had meant to. He just needed to find a way to get control over him. He needed to talk to Nat, between the two of them they should be able to come up with a strategy to get Stark to designate a new Iron Man pilot. Sam should be able to come up with a list easily, it couldn’t be that hard. Nat could help him rein Stark in; he was most useful taking care of their gear. As a civilian, he shouldn’t be out there taking risks.

Maybe this move to the country would be a good thing. There would be a lot fewer distractions away from the city. Stark wouldn’t be running off as much, he'd be around more. They would finally be able to move their relationship forward. He’d have to think about all of it.


	23. Chapter 23

Steve looked around the new compounds open kitchen. Everything was grey and sleek, shiny and modern. He hated it. The grounds were massive and there were already people arriving with supplies and equipment. Exposed beams and concrete, high ceilings and open balconies; it was Stark all over again. Why couldn’t Stark ever design a place that was comfortable, that he would _want_ to be in?

“So how do you like it?”

Steve half turned to look at Natasha behind him, “it’s alright.”

The look she gave him was skeptical, “no, really, how do you like it?”

Steve turned back to look at the kitchen and table in front of him before turning and leading the way back, Natasha followed. “It’s just like Stark.”

“Yeah, he tends to think if it costs a lot of money its better. Usually Pepper is in charge of any decorating. She actually has a sense of style.”

“What do you think?”

“Eh, I don’t really care. I mean, he asked for my opinion, but this is as good as anything. As long as he got my rooms right. I’m used to it, it’s not that different from SHIELD.”

“That’s true,” Steve remembered that, Stark asking if they had any preferences. He’d actually tried to set up an appointment with the interior designer for him. As if Steve was interested in all of that, he had more important things to do. Looking around at all the grey tile and chrome he regretted letting Stark do what he wanted. _‘I should have known it would be ugly.’_

“Rogers, Romanoff.” Miss Hill’s voice came from behind them.

Turning to look at Maria Hill, Steve saw the stack of paperwork in her hands.

“Now that the compound is ready to be moved into, we have some paperwork to go over. Would you like me to have one of the lawyers go over it with you, or are you okay with reading it yourself?”

“Paperwork?” Steve walked over to Miss Hill.

“Yes. Stark Industries is a multinational, multibillion-dollar company that employs over two hundred thousand people worldwide. It further directly supports approximately eight hundred thousand people through related industries who rely, to a large extent, on Stark Industries by either selling things to, or buying things from them. All of that means they have a massive impact on the world economy. Dr. Stark and Ms. Potts have always been very mindful of that. Ever since SHIELD fell, Tony and the SI board have been maneuvering to create some barriers between the Avengers and SI.”

“Barriers?”

Natasha turned her head slightly towards Steve as she answered, reaching out to the stack of paperwork Miss Hill was holding. “Legal and financial. If the Avengers get in trouble with the law or are sued by someone because their car got totaled by the bad guy of the week, SI will be safe. No one can go after the Avengers hoping to get Stark’s money.”

Steve was confused, “what?”

“It will be good for us too. Do you know how many people have sued Stark over the years? It’s probably in the hundreds. That’s what happens when you have the kind of money Stark does, everyone wants a piece of it. This will keep them from bothering _us_ , when what they really want is Stark.” Natasha was flipping through pages as she spoke. “And no one will try to go through SI to get control of us. We’ll be separate.”

Steve nodded and took his own stack, “so what are these ‘barriers’?”

Miss Hill straightened up and took the tablet that had been tucked under her arm in hand. “Basically, it solidifies the legal entity of ‘The Avengers’ and specifies who is responsible for the team. The ‘owners’ if you will. At this point in time that would be you two and Agent Barton.”

“Thor is considered an alien, and so has no legal identity. Dr. Stark has been working with the UN to try to get his legal identity established and there is a preliminary agreement in the paperwork that states that once Thor _can_ be included, he’ll be grandfathered in; if he accepts. You'll have to get his signature the next time you see him.”

“As both Drs. Banner and Stark are only listed as consultants on the Avengers roster, they are not owners of the Avengers brand. Wilson has no ranking at this time, that will have to be something the three of you decide on.”

Natasha looked up in surprise, “Stark didn’t list himself as an owner?”

“No. He is listed as a consultant as well as a donor. The Avengers have been incorporated as a non-profit, non-governmental organization. Dr. Stark has listed his contributions as a donation.”

“Hm,” Natasha nodded knowingly.

“What?”

“It’s for tax purposes. He can ‘donate’ all the money he wants, and he won’t have to pay taxes on it if we’re listed as a charity. He’s saving money. He’ll probably still try to act like he’s in charge, but we can put a stop to that and point at these papers. He’ll argue, but he wrote the papers. It’ll be his own fault.”

Natasha had answered before Maria could, and neither of the two noticed as her eyebrows went up in surprise briefly. 

Steve wasn’t surprised; wasn’t that always the way the rich became rich. By letting everyone else pay. But it looked like this time, Stark had shot himself in the foot trying to save money. “He’ll keep paying for everything, right?”

“That’s another thing,” Maria tapped her tablet to turn it on, “you are aware of the Avengers merchandise, correct?”

Seeing their confirming nods, she went on, “as The Avengers have been separated entirely from SI, and you two and Agent Barton are now the owners of The Avengers brand, you are also now in charge of the merchandising. Several companies have already licensed The Avengers images and the money coming in from that should be more than enough for normal operating procedures. As well as significant amounts to charity.”

Steve jerked his head back a little in surprise, “so Stark _isn’t_ going to keep supporting us?”

“I guess he got bored.”

Maria ignored Natasha’s comment, “as I understand it, Dr. Stark was attempting to set it up so that The Avengers could operate as independently as possible, not reliant on _anyone_. If Dr. Stark died tomorrow, you would still be supported.”

Steve was taken aback; he hadn’t thought of it that way. He supposed that was a good thing, Stark thinking ahead like that. And that way they wouldn’t have to be so careful to pander to the billionaire. He couldn’t throw a fit and cut their funding. Explaining his reasoning to Nat, she agreed.

“So what do you need for that?” Natasha asked.

“I need to know who is going to be in charge of all of that. Dr. Stark always included, in all the contracts he set up for Avengers and Iron Man licensing, that every product had to be approved individually. He didn’t want sub-par ‘official’ merchandise out there.”

Natasha and Steve stared at each other. Neither one of them wanted to do that, it sounded boring. Steve sighed before looking again at Miss Hill, “can’t you do it?”

“I can assign someone to do it. But you will have to explicitly explain to them what your criteria are and be available if they have questions.”

“That sounds good. If that’s all, I think we have a lot of paperwork to read and sign.”

Steve agreed. The two of them adjusted their individual paperwork as Maria said goodbye and walked away.

Steve waited until Miss Hill had left before looking down at the stack of papers in his hands. “Is this really necessary?”

“It’s not a bad thing. I am surprised though, Stark acknowledging that he’s not in charge. It’s a little more paperwork now, but in the long run it’ll save us time. People won’t be trying to go through us to get at Stark when he offends them or does something stupid.”

“You’ll read it?”

“Sure. If there’s no problems we can sign them.”

“Okay. Thanks.”


	24. Chapter 24

They had been officially moved into the compound for two weeks now, and today was only the second time Steve had seen Stark since moving. Walking in to the kitchen he saw the shorter man dressed in one of his three-piece suits, jacket off, getting a cup of coffee.

“Hey Cap.”

“Stark. We haven’t seen you in a while.”

“Yeah, I know. We’re finalizing the design for the tower that’s about to start being built in London. The Los Angeles complex is almost finished. And the Hawaii and Berlin towers seem to just keep growing. I’m thinking of building that tower in Tokyo that the Hawaii one was supposed to be in place of. Or maybe Sydney…,” he trailed off obviously in thought as he mumbled under his breath, “maybe both? Huh?”

“Stark!”

“Yeah, what?” brown eyes left the cup of coffee in front of him and looked up at Steve. Steve had to admit those eyes _are_ very pretty, an almost whiskey colored amber.

“You need to be here more, Stark. When are you moving in?”

“What?”

Steve didn’t understand the confusion on the other’s face. “When are you moving in?” 

“I’m… not…?” Stark set his cup down as Steve looked at him in surprise. “Why would you think I was moving in here?”

“We’re the Avengers, this is the Avenger’s compound. You need to be here.” Steve crossed his arms and stared at Stark. 

Stark leaned against the kitchen island next to him. “I’m not an Avenger, remember. I’m only a consultant. I have a home, and a job. I’m here for the big stuff, the stuff you need more bodies for or a heavy hitter. But I’m too busy to follow you all over the world, hunting Hydra the way you and Nat are always doing.”

“That’s not good enough, you _need_ to be here.” How could Stark not understand that.

“Well it’s not happening. I’m only here right now, to help set up the labs and check the security. I’m also going over the necessary maintenance for your equipment with Walters, making sure he knows how to fix everything. I’ll be back every couple of months, run a security sweep, pass on any upgrades I might have made. But unless you need me for something, I doubt I’ll be here that often Captain.”

“Whose Walters?” Steve almost regretted the question. He hated it when Stark looked at him like he had asked something stupid.

“He’s your new armorer.” Stark went on before Steve could take that in, “he was listed, along with everyone else, in the packet of information you got when the compound personnel started coming in. We have Walters to repair any weapons, several support crew for the two quinjets you have, security, computer specialists, geopolitical and military analysts, medical and research, as well as compound maintenance, like the landscapers and cleaners. Most of them are former SHIELD, but all of them had to be fully vetted before being allowed on property.

All that? Steve felt a little unbalanced, it was making him angry, “but, you do that.”

“Do what?” Stark smirked that ugly little smirk he used sometimes, “I’m a little too busy to be mowing several acres of lawn.”

“You fix our gear.”

“I _did_ , but I’m not the only engineer in the world. Walters will be on site and his main job will be to keep everything working. I’ve had to drop important projects before when you came back with damage. We almost lost the Akali contract; as it is, I had to pay penalties for going over deadline.”

Steve didn’t care about that, Stark was the best, it was only right that he prioritizes Avengers gear. “You’re the best. You need to be here doing that.” Steve was trying to emphasize how important this was. The Avengers needed Stark here doing maintenance. 

Stark crossed his arms as he stared back at him, he had an intently puzzled look on his face like he was trying to figure something out. Why did he always look at Steve like he was missing something. It was Stark that didn’t seem to understand how important what they did was.

“No. I’m not moving out here. In fact, a lot of my time is going to be spent in Hawaii from now on.”

“ _Stark_!” what was he talking about! What about date night?

“You don’t watch the news or TV very much, do you?” Stark reached over to the jacket draped over the stool next to him. “Now, I have to go talk to Maria, get the last of the paperwork squared away, then I’m done here. I’ll see you later, Cap.”

Steve called after the retreating back as Stark left, pulling on his coat, “what about movie night?”

“Later, Cap.” The dismissive wave was so aggravating. But he could see Maria standing outside in the hallway waiting and didn’t want to have a private conversation in front of her. He’d catch Stark later, before he left. 

Steve didn’t realize that Stark was going to take the stack of signed paper handed to him by Maria and leave twenty minutes later.


	25. What do you mean he has a boyfriend?

Steve was having dinner with Nat, Clint and Sam, when the topic of Stark came up again. “I don’t know why he’s being so stubborn about it. He’s refusing to move out here. He actually told me he was going to be in Hawaii a lot more.”

“Well yeah, that’s where his boyfriend is.”

“ _What!_ ”

Sam looked up from the plate of enchiladas in front of him he had been spreading sour cream over, “his boyfriend.”

“ _I’m_ his boyfriend!”

“What?”

“What are you talking about, Sam?” Steve didn’t pay attention to the plate he had accidentally shoved to the floor, staring across at Sam.

Sam was looking at him in concern, “it was in the news. Tony Stark, setting up semi-permanent residence in Hawaii, to be near his boyfriend.” Sam leaned forward, “Steve, what did you mean when you said you’re his boyfriend? Have you two been seeing each other?”

“Of course! We watch movies and go to dinner, listen to music. We’ve been dating for months!” Steve looked to where Nat and Clint were watching in silence, “has Stark been cheating on me?”

“Well what’d ya expect? Stark’s a manwhore.” Clint wasn’t being very sympathetic in Steve’s opinion, “you told us months ago that you hadn’t even kissed him. Who knows how many people he’s been seeing on the side.”

“Uh, guys.”

“You know he’s a narcissist, Steve, it’s why he wasn’t approved for the team.” Natasha dismissed Stark, turning back to her dinner, “you can do better. Do you want me to get in touch with Sharon again?”

“B-but, he can’t _do this_!”

“Guys?”

Steve turned to Sam, who was watching all three of them, “what?”

Sam was looking at him in confusion, he didn’t understand why. “How do you not know about Stark’s boyfriend in Hawaii. It’s been all over the TV and social media for months. It’s even been on the news. Stark admitted months ago that a big reason for a Hawaii tower instead of a Tokyo one, was so that he could work out of it.”

Steve felt vindicated, “so he _wasn’t_ working all those times!”

“What times?” Sam was looking at him.

“All those times he said he needed to be in Hawaii. He was just cheating on me!” Steve was standing by this point. “I’m not going to let him get away with this.” Steve marched off to his room. He needed to get his uniform and shield.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end is coming up. I've never been very happy with the ending, and as I've been editing and posting that hasn't gotten better (it's gotten worse). I'm going to take a couple of more days, see if inspiration strikes. If not, I'll just post what I have.


	26. Chapter 26

Steve sat in the back of the quinjet, as Clint flew them to Hawaii. Even with a Stark quinjet, the flight was over three hours, giving Steve plenty of time to fume as he thought of Stark. Stark had obviously just been using him. He ran his shield through his hands, testing the edge. 

Sam had tried to talk to him several times from the seat opposite him, holding out a tablet that showed Stark walking along the beach with a tall dark-haired man. But Steve didn’t want to read about the man Stark had been cheating on him with. He was too busy thinking of what he was going to say to Stark.

“So, what’s the plan, Cap?”

Steve looked up from where he was running his shield through his hands towards the cockpit, thinking about Clint’s question. “First, we need to find Stark.”

“That’s not too hard,” Nat pulled out her phone and started poking at the screen. “There we go, he’s in police headquarters.”

“What! What’d he do?” Steve ignored Sam who was looking at him strangely and trying to get his attention with that tablet again.

“Don’t know. I’m sure we’ll find out all about it when we get there. It’s just down the street from the palace, we can land in the yard there.”

Steve got up and went to stand looking over Natasha’s shoulder where she was sitting in the other cockpit seat. “How’d you know where to find him anyways.”

Natasha scoffed, “Stark’s such an attention whore. He’s on all the celebrity tracking apps.”

Steve was appalled, “he tells everyone where he is?”

“No, when people see him walking around, they post it. Get enough posts in the same area and it’s probably him.”

Steve huffed in disapproval, crossing his arms. That was a terrible invasion of privacy. Does that mean that people had been talking about and posting things on the dates he went on with Stark? That was another thing he was going to have to have Stark stop when they got home. Once this nonsense of Stark cheating on him had been taken care of. He shouldn’t have been surprised by Stark cheating; he’d have to keep a closer eye on him from now on. No more trips for business, for one. 

Landing an hour later in the grassy field next to the palace, Steve waited impatiently for the back of the quinjet to lower. Settling his shield, making sure that his cowl was hanging from his neck instead of covering his face, he didn’t want to alarm any civilians, Steve marched down the ramp.

Ignoring the gawking people, most of whom had their cell phones out, Steve surveilled the area. Turning, he waited as Natasha, Clint and Sam joined him at the base of the ramp. Frowning at Sam, “why aren’t you wearing your wings?”

“Uh, ‘cause this isn’t a mission?” Sam looked back at him. He looked uncomfortable in his jeans and shirt. No doubt he was just now realizing that he should have worn his wings. Maybe Steve should be a little more clear in his orders; it would prevent some of these misunderstandings. Giving Sam a smile to insure he knew that Steve wasn’t angry with him. Opening his mouth, he was interrupted by the scream of police sirens as half a dozen police cars rushed up.

Turning to frown at the police cars as their sirens cut out, he started marching in their direction. They might be rude, blaring their sirens for no reason, but at least he could find out what Stark had done now. “I need to be taken to Tony Stark.”

“Is something wrong, Captain?” the man Steve had approached was looking around, hand on his weapon.

The officer’s behavior was annoying, he seemed to be more concerned with staring around him instead of speaking to Steve. It was very rude. “I need Stark, he’s at your police station, isn’t he?”

“What?” 

The man finally looked at Steve. He seemed confused. Steve huffed, before turning and giving a significant look at Nat. Slinging his shield on his back he took off at a jog towards the Police Headquarters building. It was only down the street a little way, he could see it from here.

Running up to the police building, taking in the words over the entrance. Stark was just coming out of the main doors, jogging down the steps towards him with a concerned look on his face. Steve barely glanced at the billionaire, instead his gaze zeroed in on the small group of people that came out of the building with Stark. The dark-haired man from the photo Sam had been trying to show him was at the lead.

“Captain.” Steve looked down into concerned brown eyes. “What’s the problem?”

“Stark. Time to go.” Steve reached out to grab hold of Stark’s arm and turned to go back to the quinjet.

“Where’s the fire, Cap?” 

Stark dragged his feet a little as Steve tugged on him. At that moment an Iron Man suit floated down to land in front of them on the sidewalk. The chatter and noise from the surrounding crowd had a brief up swell at the appearance of the armor. The armor distracted Steve enough that Stark was able to pull his arm free and walk the few steps to the red and gold suit. 

“What are you doing, Stark?”

Stark turned around with a confused look on his face. “What?” he paused as the suit opened up and waited for him to step into it. “You came to get me for some reason.”

Steve frowned. “Just come on,” Steve reached out to grab Stark’s arm again.

The group on the stairs moved down to stand level with the sidewalk as Stark moved his arm out of the way of Steve’s grab. “Tony?”

“I don’t know, babe.” Stark frowned, turning to Steve, “Cap, what is going on!”

Steve looked at the dark-haired man staring between them, “you’ve been cheating on me! That’s what!” Steve gestured toward the man, “who is this, Stark!”

“Wha…?”

Normally Steve liked it when Stark stopped talking, but the unattractive gaping was insulting. Did Stark really think he was never going to get caught? “I just found out you’ve been cheating on me. For months!”

“What?”

Steve was tired of this. Stark was just standing there gaping at him. The interloper was watching them both, arms crossed. There were a lot of people filming this on their phones. Reaching for Stark again, he tried to grab ahold of his arm.

Stark jerked back, and that seemed to get his mouth started again, “what are you talking about Rogers! I can’t have been cheating on you, we’re not dating!”

“What?” Steve shook that off, “of course we are, don’t be ridiculous. Now come on, let’s get back to the compound. It will take a lot, but I’m sure you can make this up to me. I’ll just have to watch you closer. I don’t think I want you coming back to Hawaii, Miss Potts will just have to do it.”

As Steve reached out again for Stark’s arm, another hand came out of nowhere and gripped his wrist. Looking at the large tanned hand with the bulky black watch he followed it up until he was staring into the interloper’s face.

“I don’t think he wants you touching him.”

“Let go, son. You don’t know what you’re getting into here.” Steve shook the brunet’s hand off his arm.

“Don’t Steve,” Stark’s voice sounded concerned. Steve looked over; Stark didn’t usually call him by name. “I’ve got this.”

“Rogers,” here Stark paused as he studied Steve’s face. “We haven’t been dating.”

Steve stared at Stark where he was standing in front of the open Iron Man. “Yes, we have. We have dinner, watch movies together. We’re dating. And now I find out you’re cheating on me? I knew I was going to have to watch you. I mean I know your history….”

“Rogers.” Stark interrupted again. “Those weren’t dates. You asked me to help you integrate into the 21 century. I was helping you, that’s all.”

“What? No. You don’t go to dinner and watch a movie with a friend, Stark.” Steve was starting to get impatient. He couldn’t believe that Stark was doing this, “you’re not going to convince this guy to keep seeing you, Stark. Now that he knows we’re a couple, he’ll back off.” 

Steve looked around at the people surrounding them. The crowd had grown substantially, and they all seemed to be pointing those stupid mobile telephones at them. No doubt all of this was going to be all over that intra-web. “I didn’t really want to come out to the public so soon, but I’m not going to let you just go around with some other fella.”

Reaching again for Stark’s arm he was surprised when the interloper brunet took a step forward as if he was going to try to stop him. Turning to the man, “who are you, anyways?” Not letting him answer Steve continued, “now that you know that Stark’s with me, you can leave.”

“Yeah, no.”

“Commander McGarret, Honolulu PD, Five-oh taskforce.” Both the answer from Stark and from the brunet man came at the same time.

Steve studied the lose stance of the man in front of him. Definite training. Of course, he would be no match for Steve.

“Steve, babe.”

Steve turned to Stark and saw he was watching the other man. Frowning he also turned to the other, “you can leave now.”

“I don’t think so.” Steve frowned in disapproval at the brunet, this Commander McGarret. The other man looked back, he was tall with hazel green eyes and a slight stubble on his chin.

“Steve, it’s fine. Don’t.”

Steve looked over to where Stark was still standing in front of his armor. He looked concerned as he watched the standoff between Steve and this McGarret.

“Stark,” taking a step forward he was stopped as McGarret put his hand on his arm. “Son…”

“Don’t call me son,” McGarret withdrew his hand once Steve had stopped and focused on him again. “Tony?” McGarret turned to look at Stark.

“Rogers, whatever you think, we’re not dating. We’re not going to date. I have no interest in dating you.”

Steve frowned in disapproval at Stark, he was being so stubborn. Always contradicting Steve just to be contrary. “Don’t lie, Stark. We’ve been dating for months.” He frowned harder as Stark interrupted him again.

“Well then, consider yourself broken up with.”

“That’s not up to you,” Steve pulled himself up tall and looked down at the smaller man.

“Yeah, it is.”

“Stay outta’ it!” Steve snapped at McGarret.

“The only one who gets to decide who Tony dates, is Tony.”

“Steve! Don’t!”

“Yeah!” Steve shifted his weight to confront McGarret, ignoring Stark’s plea. “Well he chose me, and now I’m goin’ ta hold him to it.”

“You don’t get to decide that.”

Steve didn’t pay any attention to the police officers who had slowly trickled out of the building as the confrontation continued. That presence had become a flood as more police arrived to drive people back and away from the increasing tension.

Putting his hand on the brunet’s chest Steve pushed, just a little show of his strength and this guy should back down. He was no match for Steve, but there was no reason for it to come to blows, McGarret couldn’t possibly be that attached to Stark.

“Steve!” Stark sounded worried as the brunet stumbled back under the force of the shove. “Rogers, don’t! What are you doing!”

Steve looked over, Stark stepped closer and shoved his way between him and McGarret. Reaching out Steve grabbed ahold of his wrist and turned to leave. “Let’s go.”

“Let go, Rogers!” Stark’s other hand picked at the fingers circling his wrist. “I’m not going anywhere with you!”

Steve clenched his hand tighter, ignoring Stark’s complaints, they just needed to get back to the quinjet and they could go back to the compound, and sort everything out. McGarret stepping in front of him with his weapon drawn and pointed at Steve’s head was a surprise. 

“Let him go, and I won’t put you under arrest for attempted kidnapping.”

“What are you doing?” Steve looked from the gun to the man holding it on him. His shield was in its place on his back, it would take several seconds for him to get it. Just then McGarret’s threat registered, “kidnapping! I’m not kidnapping him!”

“Let. Him. Go. I won’t ask again.” The gun McGarret was pointing at him moved from pointing at his face to pointing at his chest.

“Rogers! Let GO!” Stark was pulling at his wrist. 

Steve let go of Stark’s wrist and started to put his hands up only to drop and spin, bringing his shield up in front of him as he advanced on McGarret. Three quickfire bullets ricochet off the shield. Throwing himself forward, Steve went for a quick punch that McGarret dodged at the last second. Steve felt himself relaxing as he settled into the fight. This guy had tried to take his fella, Steve knew how to deal with him.

The kick Steve sent was also avoided, as Steve advanced on McGarret. Throwing a quick one-two punch, Steve was disgruntled to see his first strike dodged, and his second slapped to the side. The follow up strike was also dodged, giving McGarret the chance to strike him from behind. Steve grumbled at the dishonorable actions of this man Stark had found. 

Steve relaxed as both Clint and Natasha moved to help him. He could see, out of the corner of his eye, as several of the police officers that had started to circle them collapsed abruptly. He didn’t see his teammates, but he knew they were there, helping. 

Moving in faster than McGarret could counter, he feinted down low before bringing his shield around and into the other’s shoulder. To give McGarret his due, he saw the blow coming and was able to move with it, enough to lessen much of the force. But it simply wasn’t good enough. Striking forward, Steve was shocked as his fist was stopped, just in front of McGarret's face, gripped by the Iron Man armor.

“That’s enough.” Steve flailed as that grip on his fist tightened and then he was thrown backwards. Looking up he saw that Stark had taken a stance in front of McGarret both hands out, repulsars pointed at him. “That’s enough, Rogers. I don’t know where you got the idea that me helping you integrate was dating, considering we aren’t even on a first name basis. But this is me telling you ‘no.’ No, I will not date you. No, I will not go anywhere with you.”

Stark was momentarily distracted by the arrow that impacted his breastplate and sparked. Taking advantage of that, Steve threw himself to his feet and threw his shield full force at Stark’s chest. Clint’s arrow should take out the Iron Man’s power, destroying the arc reactor would make sure. Stark was going to be grounded after this. Steve and Sam would need to start going through the possible replacement pilots right away.

Steve advanced, getting ready to catch his shield as it bounced back towards him only to stumble off balance as Stark didn’t even falter despite the EMP arrow. One arm came up and deflected the shield at a downward angle, causing it to drive itself into the sidewalk under them. 

Running forward Steve had almost grasped the edge of the shield to pull it out of the sidewalk when he was shot. Faltering, he reached up to find a little cluster of darts sticking out of his neck. Dizzy, he tried to push forward only to find himself on his knees staring up at the braced form of Stark in his armor standing over him. The black was encroaching on his vision as he heard, “In case this is too hard to understand, Rogers. This is my resignation from the team.”


	27. Chapter 27

Coming to, Steve looked around himself. Lifting his head up, Steve saw that he was in some sort of cell and he had been placed on the cot. His uniform was gone, someone had changed him into simple blue cotton shirt and pants. He didn’t know where he was, all he could see were steel walls and bars surrounding him. Sitting up was difficult as he found himself restrained by a set of strangely thick handcuffs and ankle chains. Pulling at them, he strained for several minutes before stopping with a pant. Whatever these cuffs were, they weren’t regular handcuffs and were strong enough that he wasn’t going to be able to break them easily. 

Turning to study the room again he got up and approached the bars. From this angle he could see two guards stationed on either side of the short detention block. He was at the end of the three cells; the other two were empty. “Hey! Let me out!”

“Hey you! Let me out! You have no right to hold me here!” Steve saw the two men, they looked to be in Navy uniforms, look over at him, but neither of them moved toward the bars. Rattling his cuffs, Steve set himself, and again he started straining, pulling one knee up under the chain for more leverage. Several minutes later and he was starting to feel the shackles give, metal groaning.

So busy trying to break out of the chains holding him, Steve didn’t realize the two guards watching him could also hear and see the metal giving way. One of them reaching over from where he was stationed to speak quietly into an intercom.

The chain running between his wrist cuffs had just started to separate when a group of men coming into the room distracted him. Looking up, Steve jumped to his feet, moving over to the bars. “Hey you! Let me out!”

“Steve Rogers?”

Steve looked away from the Navy lieutenant he had been focusing on and towards an unremarkable looking man in a simple slacks and shirt. The man had some sort of badge clipped on his belt, but Steve couldn’t see it properly. “What?”

“Steve Rogers, I am Police Lieutenant…”

“Why am I in here, let me out!”

“…here to inform you of your rights. You have been placed under arrest for assault, attempted kidnapping, and assault of several police officers, not least of which is Commander Steve McGarret.”

“What! Let me out!”

“You have the right to remain silent…”

“What are you talking about! I didn’t assault anyone! You don’t have the right to hold me here!”

“You have the right…”

Steve again yelled over the man’s voice. He hadn’t done anything wrong! This was all Stark’s fault! As the man continued to drone on, Steve looked around at everyone else on the other side of the room. If he could just get out of here, he could get to Stark and all of this would go away. Pulling on his cuffs again, he looked up in shock as he heard two rifles being worked only to see them being aimed between the bars and directly at him.

“Mr. Rogers, if you continue in your endeavor you will be shot with tranquilizers and we will add attempting to escape to your charges. Now, do you understand your rights?”

“Why are you doing this! You have no right to hold me, I didn’t do anything wrong! You have no right to threaten me like that!”

“Mr. Rogers, that is not up to me to decide. I am simply here to tell you your rights and what you’re being charged with. Everything else is out of my hands.”

Steve sputtered as the man in front of him continued, “we have taken precautions to ensure your continued cooperation and the safety of the men charged with holding you. A federal judge signed an emergency remit that allows for the administration of tranquilizers if you, as an enhanced human, attempt to escape. The tranquilizers are the same ones that were used to arrest you. They have already been proven to be safe to use with your advanced metabolism and they were designed by Dr. Bruce Banner to be strong enough to take down the Hulk before he fully transforms. Do you understand?”

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” Steve didn’t understand why this man was talking like that.

“As I said, Mr. Rogers, that is not up to me to decide. I am simply here to inform you of your rights and the charges being brought against you.”

“What do you mean?” The man, he had introduced himself, but Steve wasn’t paying attention at the time, was staring at him with a flat look on his face. Steve could tell that he didn’t like him for some reason. No doubt he was friends with that scum McGarret. That must be why he was lying and trying to say that he couldn’t do anything to get Steve out of here. If he wasn’t unreasonably against Steve, he would just open the door and Steve could leave. The keys must be around here someplace.

“You have been charged by the State of Hawaii, Mr. Rogers. You are being held for trial. You do not get to just declare yourself innocent and leave. Now, do you understand your rights, or do I need to repeat them to you?”

“Why are you doing this? I haven’t assaulted anyone! You shouldn’t arrest people who haven’t done anything wrong! The public won’t stand for it when they hear what you’ve done.”

Steve was getting impatient as the man just stared back at him for several minutes, “well!” He was very disgruntled. The man might say he was a Police Officer, but Steve could tell he wasn’t a very good one. Threatening him like that. Trying to say Steve had done something wrong when it was that McGarret that had started it, arguing with him. And Stark; all of this was Stark’s fault.

“You have been arrested, Mr. Rogers. You are now going to trial. As no investigations are necessary, my part in this is now over. I have read you your rights, as soon as you acknowledge that you understand them, I will arrange for the DA and your own lawyer to meet with you.” 

Steve stared back; he couldn’t understand what was going on. This man reminded him of Coulson with his bland face. But Coulson never would have stood on the other side of bars from Steve and not tried to get him out. Coulson had understood that Steve was a good man; this man didn’t seem to care. He just droned on in his boring voice, like none of this mattered to him at all.

“Do you need me to repeat your rights for you, Mr. Rogers?”

Steve shook his head.

“I require verbal acknowledgement, Mr. Rogers. Do you understand your rights?”

“Yes.”

“Very well. I will inform the DA. The Avenger’s compound in New York was contacted and your lawyer’s contact information was obtained. As far as I know they are contacting firms here in Hawaii to represent you. When your lawyer arrives, he or she will be brought to you. Do you understand, Mr. Rogers?”

“Yes, I understand,” Steve stares at the man, taking in the position of the two guards with rifles that had stepped back against the wall. “Why are you doing this?”

“It is my job, Mr. Rogers. No one is above the law, not even you.” With those final parting words, he turned and with a smooth stride left the room.

Heavy locks and bolts slid into place as the steel access shut after the leaving police officer. “Hooweeii! You done made yourself a mess, boy!”

Steve looked at the man left on the other side of the bars. It was a Navy Lieutenant Commander. He must have been in his early thirties lean, with dirty blond hair. “What do you mean? Who are you?”

“Ah am Lieutenant Commander Anderson, I’m in charge of the brig here on the Indominable. Those folks over in Honolulu didn’t really have anyplace to hold you so the Admiral nominated us.” 

Anderson’s eyes flicked down to the chains Steve had almost broken through. “Ooh, boy. You sure are a strong one, huh?”

“The Indominable?” Steve’s eyes flicked around. He’d only been on a few Navy ships, and none since he woke up from the ice. It didn’t look much like the SHIELD ships he’d been on. Instead of the SHIELD black, everything was a flat grey and Steve could see that the ship was older.

“Yep,” Anderson rocked on his feet after saying that annoying little popping, affirmative that everyone here in the future seemed to use. “Now that ya’all’re awake we can get those chains off ya. That is,” Anderson was grinning at Steve, he didn’t like it, “if you promise to behave yourself. You do that, we’ll get along just fine, Mr. Rogers.”

“Captain.”

Steve watched the grin fall off Anderson’s face. “Now that would not be a smart thing to insist on, Mr. Rogers. You might not want to be reminding people that you used to be a Captain.”

That was just plain insulting, “I didn’t used to be a Captain. I’m still a Captain. I’m Captain America.”

“You shore are.” Anderson’s eyes were sharp as they stared through the bars at Steve. “That old call-sign of yours shore is famous. Why, everyone knows who Captain America is.”

Steve nodded in acknowledgment. He’s glad at least one person had agreed with him when he corrected him.

“But it shore would be a bad idea if you tried to insist on being addressed by your former rank. The United States armed forces don’t really like former members running around insisting on being addressed like they were still in the service. Gives people ideas.”

Steve glared, “ideas?” Steve was proud of his service. He’d fought Hitler and Nazis. This man should be thanking him.

“You bet’cha. Ideas like the Army approves of their actions. Trading on the goodwill of the Army or the Navy, and the regard people have for them. Why that’s the kind of thing that might make JAG sit up and take notice when someone gets in trouble with the law.”

“I didn’t do anything wrong! I earned my rank.”

“Military justice is a damn sight more strict than civilian, let me tell you. I do suggest, Mr. Rogers, that you don’t try too hard to insist on your former rank. You can use your call-sign all you want, Captain America ain’t never been a rank, after all. But if you try to insist people call you Captain Rogers now, when you ain’t been in the service for years, well then, they might just transfer your case to the military courts. They can still court martial ya, Mr. Rogers. Once the Army has hold of ya, they ain’t never let go.”

“What?” Steve didn’t understand what this man was talking about.

Anderson, despite his horrible accent had shrewd eyes as he stared at Steve, “you realize you ain’t been in the Army since you was found, don’t you Mr. Rogers? You might have joined that there, spy organization, but that don’t mean you was still in the Army. I don’t know much about that SHIELD, maybe they gave you the rank of Captain. But accordin’ to the Army you, Mr. Rogers, are former Captain Steve Rogers. And outside of social occasions you are not to be introducing yourself by your former rank.”

“But I earned it!”

“Maybe,” Anderson started digging in his pocket before pulling out a small key ring. “But that don’t matter. There’s lots of people out there earned their rank; once you’re out it’s gone. You can tell people all about it if you want to, but you can’t use it no more.”

“Now, Captain American ain’t a rank. That’s a call-sign. If you want to keep your call-sign and have people call you it, that’s up to you. But it ain’t got no more legitimacy than if people are calling ya Bishop; it don’t make you a priest.”

Steve stared at the Lieutenant.

“You try to insist on your old rank, Mr. Rogers, and they just might decide to treat you as if you still had it. As I said, military justice is damn sight more harsh than civilian. Now, if you give me your word that ya won’t be givin’ my boys here any trouble, I’ll take off those chains for ya.”

Steve held his hands out as Anderson took a step forward. His mind was whirling, he didn’t know what to think right now.


	28. Chapter 28

Feeling eyes on him he looked up to find Nick Fury standing there. He had heard the mechanical clunking sound of the security hatch opening and closing, but other than noticing the guards leaving he hadn’t been paying attention. Now he looked up and saw Fury, hands in his pockets, on the other side of the bars, staring at him. “Well you made a real mess of it, didn’t you?”

“Fury. Get me out of here.”

“Oh, I will,” Fury paused as he continued to stare. “Eventually.”

“ _What?_ ” Steve was outraged. “Why is this happening? I didn’t do anything wrong! If Stark had just listened; hadn’t tried to lie!” Steve stood up and took in the bare metal walls, the two servicemen weren’t there anymore. The tranq rifles gone with them.

“You, Rogers, are currently a guest of the State of Hawaii. It doesn’t have anything to do with Stark, other than him not trying to cover for you.”

“What?”

“You’ve been arrested, Rogers. For assault and battery of a police officer as well as battery and attempted kidnapping.”

“I didn’t _do_ anything! It was that McGarret! Get me out of here, Fury!”

“It’s all over the internet, Rogers. By now everyone’s seen it. You tried to kidnap Stark and, in the process, you grabbed him so hard you fractured his wrist. When Commander McGarret tried to stop you, you dislocated his shoulder. I’ve never seen a more cut and dried case.”

“That’s not what happened! Stark is always exaggerating, he’s fine. McGarret is the one that shot at me! I was only defending myself!”

“Mmn hm.” Fury turned and walked away.

“Fury!” 

“I think I’ll leave you here for now. Let you think about just what you did. After all, with Stark pulling back from the initiative I just don’t have _time_ to worry about you right now.”

“Fury!” Fury didn’t even look back as he waved a hand over his shoulder and left. Steve braced himself against the floor as he pulled on the bars with all of his strength. They were just starting to give a little when the door Fury had left through clanged again and the two servicemen came back through. This time though, they were followed by another two men, all four of them holding rifles pointed at Steve. Defeated for the moment, Steve stopped pulling on the bars. He was going to need more time if he was going to break them enough to get out of here.


	29. Chapter 29

The next several days were terrible. Miss Hill had shown up briefly to introduce him to the lawyer The Avengers Initiative had hired for him. Their former law firm had dropped the Avengers when they had found out what the charges were for. Something about it being a conflict of interest. Miss Hill hadn’t even been able to talk them into giving a recommendation, but Davis, Slate and Moore had been Stark’s firm for years, they weren’t willing to represent any of the Avengers anymore. 

Steve should have expected Stark to be petty like that. No doubt he had called and threatened them. He only hoped Hill knew what she was doing. But, he couldn’t help but think Hill could have done better; the lawyers she brought with her had been very disappointing.

The head lawyer was a whiny little defeatist, going on and on about video evidence clearly showing him grabbing Stark and breaking his wrist. They also showed him trying to drag Stark away and then attacking McGarret when told to let him go. But that hadn’t been what happened at all, no matter what it looked like.

Watching the videos Steve did have admit that they looked terrible. But that wasn’t all that was going on there! Stark had been cheating on him for months and then tried to just brush it off. Once he got out of here, they would be having words! If Stark thought he was going to get away with this, he was mistaken. Steve had always known that Stark wasn’t really Avenger’s material.

It was the rest of the videos, tablet held in front of the bars so he could see, that drove the spike deeper. He could see himself, collapsed on the ground as another Iron Man arrived carrying the reinforced handcuffs he had been wearing when he woke up. What caught his attention was Stark, stepping out of the armor and hovering over McGarret calling him ‘Steve’. Hadn’t that police officer called him Steve, too. Stark, standing by McGarret’s side as he directed the rest of the officers, letting himself be loaded into the same ambulance as the other man. Steve didn’t even notice as Miss Hill and his lawyer tried to talk to him. _Steve_ ; McGarret’s name was _Steve_.

Steve didn’t really listen to anything else the lawyers and Hill said to him that day. He was too busy thinking about Stark calling McGarret ‘Steve’. It almost made him doubt himself until he remembered how much time Stark had spent with him when they were both in New York. How Stark’s whiskey eyes always seemed to be laughing at something, trying to pull Steve into laughing along. The way the smaller man danced around in Steve’s presence, showing off his lithe form; posing.

Stark refusing to drop the charges or even meet with Steve was beyond insulting. When Hill had passed that along, Steve had wanted more than anything to be able to go beat on the heavy bags like he always did when he was upset. But he was stuck here, behind these bars. He never had any chance of breaking out either. There was always at least two people there with those rifles of theirs.


	30. Chapter 30

Steve’s lawyers kept trying to convince Steve that he needed to make a deal. Steve didn’t like that idea; he hadn’t done anything wrong. When he tried to explain that to them no one seemed to understand, they just kept arguing with him. They kept trying to explain away their spineless defeatism by bringing up the videos. Those videos had gone viral within hours, by now everyone with any interest at all had already seen them. 

True, he had a few supporters. People who didn’t like Tony Stark or the police. Supporters who thought McGarret had escalated things too far and too fast. But they were the minority. His useless lawyers kept trying to tell him that he was already being tried in the court of public opinion. That the longer this went on, the more it was damaging the reputation of Captain America. That the State of Hawaii probably wouldn’t even push very hard for jail time. The general lack of places to hold an enhanced person was forcing the State to offer penalties and fines instead of jail. That wouldn’t be true in a couple of years as there was already talk of building a small holding facility on one of the more remote islands, but that fix wouldn’t be available for several years. Steve’s lawyers kept urging Steve to take advantage of his lingering good reputation, but Steve didn’t like that idea. He wanted to be exonerated. He wanted to stand up in front of everyone and proclaim his innocence. Force everyone, especially Stark, to apologize to him.

Steve couldn’t understand how Stark could allow this to continue. Stark was damaging Captain America and the Avenger’s reputation. Didn’t he know that Steve was the leader, the one everyone looked to for direction and guidance? _Stark_ certainly needed Steve to be that for him. Just look at what he did when he wasn’t listening to Steve.

Fury showed up again the next week. He explained the videos were too widespread, he couldn’t make them disappear, he could only affect the outcome. And even then, if Steve went through with insisting on a trial, insisting he hadn’t done anything wrong, it would be out of his hands. At that point it would be up to the jury; the fickle public. Steve thought back to all the times he’d watched Stark lie and lead the public around. Telling them half-truths, convincing them, killing or creating the stories he wanted. The people were smart. They knew that Steve was there to protect them; that he’s a good guy. But he was in here and Stark was out there. He couldn’t fight the lies from in here, he _needed_ to be out there! The people would never know the truth with him stuck in here.

It stuck in his craw, he wanted to stick to his guns. Insist on the truth being told. Yell and scream in front of all those people that he hadn’t done anything _wrong_! 

But Fury was refusing to help. Trying to tell Steve that it was too public, that he couldn’t do anything. That all he could do was guarantee that if Steve lied and accepted the blame, even though it wasn’t his fault, that he wouldn’t go to jail. He’d go home, back to the compound.

Steve paced around in his cell. He’d been in here for two weeks by this point. Only allowed out on the deck of the ship when he was wearing the newly reinforced chains. Always watched. Followed by people just waiting to shoot him with those Hulk tranquilizers. The sense of being trapped, of no one listening to him, was getting to him. 

_


	31. Chapter 31

It had been almost three weeks already and Steve was starting to realize that he wasn’t getting out of here. Stark was the reason he was here. Fury wasn’t getting him out of there. Stark had always said Fury didn’t do anything that didn’t benefit him; he always had an agenda. He was going to have to do this Fury’s way, work with his lawyers. He could lie, say it was his fault, as long as it got him out of here.

In the end, it took another two weeks before Steve was standing in front of a judge, his team of lawyers by his side. The judge was very unsympathetic towards Steve. He was unconcerned with the damage this was doing to the reputation of Captain America or the Avengers; actually daring to say that it was Steve’s own fault!

Steve remembered that McGarret was a police officer, no doubt this judge was a friend of his. Steve had watched TV, he’d seen the movies, judges and the police were all in it together. Miss Hill and his lawyers had refused to let Steve try to report the judge for being corrupt and obviously biased against him. They said there was no proof, the judge was following the law, and without proof they’d be stuck with the same judge and then he’d be angry. Steve didn’t think something like that should be allowed, a judge shouldn’t punish people for pointing out their mistakes.


	32. Chapter 32

Finding out from his lawyers that Stark had videotapes of all the times they had spoken while in the tower had made Steve feel violated. When he’d spoken up, tried to tell that judge that he’d never agreed to that, it turned out that Stark had hidden it in the paperwork Steve had signed before he moved into the tower. Entire paragraphs detailing the security arrangements of the tower. The only place with no surveillance was in their private apartments, and Stark had never been in there. Steve never would have agreed to that if he’d known!

Now those tapes were being used against Steve. He’d tried to argue that he’d been justifiably upset at being cheated on. But then Stark had made all those interactions available to Steve’s lawyers. His lawyers had hoped that Stark had kept something back, tried to hide their real dates, but every day Steve had listed for them had been included in the index. Pointing to all the times they’d sat and watched movies or listened to music together. His own lawyers had pointed out that Stark almost always had work in front of him and that all he did was answer questions. They never touched or kissed or talked about anything personal. Steve was so frustrated; his _own_ lawyers didn’t believe him. They hadn’t been there, and the angle didn’t show the private smiles and intent gaze Stark had always shown him. He’d talked to Miss Hill about getting new lawyers, lawyers that would believe him, would do a better job. But in the end the videos wouldn’t change; nobody who hadn’t been there would see.

Steve couldn’t explain to them that he didn’t really care about Stark’s personal life. He was _Stark_ ; when he wasn’t being useful as Iron Man there wasn’t really much to make someone want to get to know him. There just wasn’t anything beyond the surface with Stark. If that surface hadn’t been so useful and nice to look at, Steve never would have started anything with him. And Steve certainly wasn’t going to tell Stark about what _he_ thought was important. Stark didn’t need to know anything about Bucky; Stark would never understand. 

Now that this had happened Steve wished he had listened to his instincts. He’d always known Stark was trouble.


	33. Chapter 33

Steve had to plead guilty to assault on a police officer as well as battery on Stark, along with a few other charges. Hawaii didn’t have any wish to jail him for any length of time so a fine of $10,000.00 for each charge as well as restraining orders were issued. The State of Hawaii had not banned him, that wasn’t something a state could do, but they had passed on the request, through his lawyer, that he not come back. 

Steve wanted to be able to yell at Stark. March right up to him and demand an explanation for his terrible behavior. But as part of his deal Steve was prohibited from entering any clearly marked Stark properties or approaching either Stark or McGarret. He’d complained that he wasn’t staying in Hawaii anyway, and the prosecutor had explained that the restraining order was good for New York as well. 

The DA had been extremely disrespectful when he spoke to Steve, he actually had the nerve to say that the governor had already allocated the funds to build an enhanced prison. They’d invited him to come back and see it sometime! Steve never liked letting bullies get away with being bullies, but Miss Hill and the lawyers had interrupted and hustled him away just as he was getting ready to really give the woman a piece of his mind. 

Fury showed up after Steve paid the bill and took Steve towards the airport where a quinjet was waiting. Getting on the plane, Steve looked around expecting to see the rest of his team. Not seeing anyone, he asked; it was there that Steve was informed of the rest. Natasha was back at the compound waiting for him. No one had seen her do anything, so they weren’t able to hold her for more than a couple of days. Fury explained that Clint was covering for Natasha, letting her take the pass so they didn’t both end up in jail. Steve didn’t understand why Clint had been arrested at all. He’d only been helping Steve. But then, they’d arrested Steve too, and he hadn’t done anything wrong.

But Clint hadn’t been able to disappear fast enough for people to not recognize him. And unlike Natasha, Clint’s weapons gave him away. He had taken the fall for the dozen police officers that had been tazered as well as the arrow that he had shot at Stark. His arrows were too distinctive, too individual to him; he hadn’t been able to pass them off as being someone else. It was only the non-lethal methods of his attack that had kept him from being jailed for 20 years. As it is, he had been convicted and sentenced to six years. Fury explained that Clint, with good behavior, would be released in two to three years, and that the State of Hawaii had agreed to this knowing that any more than that and Clint would likely break himself out and become a fugitive. That this was a good balance, the State of Hawaii got to punish someone, while the sentence wasn't so long that it was worth Clint becoming a fugitive. Steve didn't understand why Fury and Clint would agree to something like that; they shouldn't have to pander to the government when they hadn't done anything wrong. Clint was just trying to help him, if those police officers hadn't tried to get in their way none of this would have happened. They should have known better, they're _The Avengers_ , they're the _good_ guys. Now everyone was trying to save face and make themselves look good and Clint was being punished for it; it wasn't fair.

It was Sam that was such a disappointment to Steve. Sam hadn’t even tried to get away and hadn’t done anything to help while Stark was destroying the team. Sam had tried to help civilians run away when McGarret had escalated things so terribly. And then he stuck around to give what first aid to the tazered officers that he could, that was okay. But the statement he’d made to the police, the statement that Steve had found out about when his lawyers were trying to convince him not to go to trial. That he would never forgive. Sam was supposed to have his back, help him, cover him against their enemies. He’d never expected Sam to be a traitor.

Sam had been released after making his statement to make his way back to New York. Steve was planning to have words with Sam, when Fury informed Steve that Sam had returned the EXO wings to the Air Force and had returned to his life in DC. He’d left word with the compound that he’d resigned from the team and asked not to be contacted. Steve just knew Sam was too ashamed of his behavior to look Steve in the face. No doubt he realized what a coward he was, saving himself at the expense of his team.

As for Stark and SI, they had followed through on Stark’s word as Steve was falling unconscious. Stark had given a press conference stating that due to insurmountable personal differences Iron Man would no longer work with The Avengers Initiative.

As Steve boarded the quinjet at the airport all he could think was he had been more right than he had known, trying to date Stark had ended in a disaster.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All that's left is the Epilogue. I know a lot of people were hoping for the big dramatic confrontation. I actually think that was one of my problems with re-writing the ending; I was trying to accommodate people's wishes. And although I _do_ really enjoy a good dramatic scene I just couldn't get it to come. In this fic the Avenger's, as in canon, are just kind of fading away. Tony is going on to live a good life while Steve didn't learn a damn thing, doesn't know what went so wrong and still blames it all on Tony.
> 
> Of course, it didn't help that I got sucked into one of those stupid time wasting games until I advanced enough that it started asking for money. That ate a good month of my time.
> 
> I've pretty much lost the muse for this. And I haven't actually written that epilogue, so here's hoping that it doesn't take too long.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm re-writing the ending. I try to have at least 2 chapters ahead of what I am posting so that I can make sure that editing and changes make sense. Hopefully the next chapters won't take too long. There really isn't much left I just need to figure out how to wrap it all up.


End file.
